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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Father Terrence who wrote (21612)	5/17/1998 3:08:00 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

<<The individual must be held to be supreme in a moral society. Anything less may as well be an ant colony or beehive.>> Why is this true, Terrence? It seems to me that in a truly moral society, the individual would have clear and equitable human and civil rights, but the society as a whole would act ethically in the way it treated other societies, the environment, and the long-term interests of its own citizens. Here in San Francisco, a coalition of environmental groups has charged that the state is violating civil rights laws because the fish here, which are eaten mostly by Asians and African Americans who depend on them as a mainstay of their diets, are loaded with dioxin. Pollution really hurts everyone, and I think the point is well taken that the rights of all of us are infringed upon when species disappear, or we are poisoned by the activities of companies or individuals not acting in our best interests. I think you may be forgetting that ant colonies and beehives are complex societies where everyone has a role to play, and plays it well, not only for the benefit of the the colony but for survival of the individual as well. The earth is a huge group of individuals, but on the other hand, is a very small chunk of planetary material spinning in space with its population clinging to it for survival. There are many things which man is doing, and may do over the next hundred years or so, which could destroy life for all of us. Certainly, our survival interests may be better dealt with if we look to the model of the ant colony or beehive, instead of being as individualistic and as selfish as we possibly can.