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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (71418)	8/3/2003 10:13:28 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

I am really not taking a stand here- I don't believe that everything should automatically be allowed. I think that the implications for society should be of some consideration. I just don't want to confuse honest examination with prejudice-- there ought to be some pretty strong reasons behind denying inclusion I can agree with that. Perhaps where we differ is that I am perhaps slower than you are to accept that we understand the implications for society of certain changes. I give a fair amount of credence to the stored experience and practices of societies that have worked over the centuries. Societies make mistakes, no doubt about it. For one example, slavery was a well established and accepted custom in many or most societies since at least the time of recorded history, but I have no doubt that it is totally immoral and wrong for us today. (But whether it was all that immoral and wrong three thousand years ago when there were no machines to substitute for human labor and societies that wanted to develop culturally and artistically had to rely on slave labor is a fascinating subject worth discussing sometime, but not in the middle of this discussion. I just recognize that without slavery we would probably not have much if any of the Greek literature we have, Plato couldn't have spent his time teaching and writng in the Academy, Sophocles and Euripides and all wouldn't have had venues and leisure for their drama, etc. The pyramids wouldn't exist, the Acropolis wouldn't have been built, and on and on. Are these accomplishments sufficient to offset, at least in part, the evils of slavery? But if we get into that at all, maybe later.) The point being that very frequently when we really dig into folk wisdom, social taboos from centuries past, et. al. we find that there were good reasons for societies to have the limits and taboos they did. And that we as a society will, I believe, pay a high price for abandoning almost willy nilly the wisdom of many people, many societies, over many centuries.