persephone_kore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
persephone_kore) wrote2004-11-04 07:11 pm
persephone_kore) wrote2004-11-04 07:11 pm
I have something I would like to say.
I am pleased with the outcome of the United States presidential election.
Some of you were already aware of this. Some of you may have guessed. Some of you may be extremely surprised.
Now, then.
Yes, this means I prefer Bush's foreign policy to what I would expect from Kerry.
Yes, this means that in general and on balance, I prefer the policies I expect from Bush to those I would expect from Kerry.
No, this does not mean I agree with everything every Republican on earth thinks or does. For one thing, this would be impossible.
Yes, I believe we have the right to free speech. No, this does not mean there is nothing I think should not be said. There is a difference between having the right to do something and having it be a good idea.
Yes, actually, the above item was inspired by an assortment of LJ posts that didn't have anything to do with politics. If you don't know which ones I'm talking about, I'm sure you can think of your own.
No, I am not sure making this post is a good idea, but I am doing it anyway. :)
Yes, I believe that there are and should be many things that are:
morally wrong, but not illegal;
morally right, but not legally required;
illegal, but not morally wrong;
legally required, but not morally demanded;
both illegal and immoral;
both moral and legally required.
Yes, I may very well disagree with you on what falls into which category.
Yes, I do believe that a person's behavior -- as distinct from impulses and desires, but including conscious or "default" decisions as to what to dwell on -- is something that person exerts control over and makes choices about. This does not mean that I am unaware that there are physical and psychological influences on us, but barring the philosophical opinion that there is no such thing as control or choice at all, if our behavior is not under our own control there is generally something wrong.
Yes, I believe that this includes sexual behavior, and I do believe that these things are morally wrong:
sex outside a lifetime mutually committed relationship (yes, I said that instead of "marriage" on purpose)
homosexual sex
divorce for reasons other than adultery or abuse.
Yes, I am aware that I know and in some cases love many people who have engaged or do engage in the above activities. No, I am afraid that knowing or liking someone who does a particular thing does not automatically mean I approve of it. Yes, I believe an act can be morally wrong even if no one is obviously hurt by it.
Yes, I am aware that many good things and much happiness have come from some of the above. I am familiar with the idea that bad behavior can sometimes lead to good results, temporary or longer-lasting, and that good behavior can sometimes lead to painful ones. If you wish (given that I am a Christian) to point out that "by their fruits ye shall know them," I shall point out that this was said in a different context and that the Bible also contains numerous examples of good people suffering and of good things being brought out of evil. The world is not always fair, or for that matter obvious. And honestly? I'm glad if you're happy, and hope that you will continue to be, even if I don't think what you're doing is right.
No, I do not believe that people should be injured or treated rudely for any of the above. Yes, I believe that injuring them or treating them rudely is wrong. Er, that goes for most of the above: if someone has cheated on or abandoned another, unfailing courtesy from the injured party might be very noble but is perhaps a bit much to expect.
Yes, I expect homosexuality (both desire and behavior) to become just as socially accepted and legally recognized as divorce.
Yes, I think there will still be people who think it's wrong. I also think there will still be people who think eating meat is wrong. (Actually, this is only a good analogy if it regards people who consider eating meat immoral for reasons other than the injury caused to the animals. I believe that people who genuinely think other species deserve legal protection from killing for meat/hide/research/whatever are right to push for this legal protection. I still do not agree with them, but that isn't the point.)
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do think divorce -- or rather, the failure to treat marriage as a real and lifelong commitment -- is a much more serious problem than what anybody does outside it or whom they want to marry.
Yes, as it happens, I think that temper, the desire to lash out in anger and hurt another physically or emotionally, is among the urges that should not be indulged, and since indulging it almost automatically hurts another, it is worse than a self-indulgence that hurts no one, or only the individual. Yes, I admit that knowing this intellectually does not mean it's easy to accept emotionally about a sin I'm prone to. That doesn't mean it isn't true.
Yes, I am pro-life.
Yes, I think that this is a question of the definition of murder rather than of legislating about people's private lives.
No, I do not bomb abortion clinics.
No, I am not claiming that your body belongs to a moral stance or that you shouldn't have the right to decide what grows within it.
Yes, I fully believe that your body is your own.
No, I do not believe your child's body is part of yours.
Yes, I believe that once a pregnancy is in progress, there is another person's body involved, and that an unborn child should have legal protection from being killed.
Yes, I'd be reasonably happy with legal protection starting with brain activity.
Yes, I am aware that sometimes abortions are medically necessary. I would compare this to self-defense rather than murder, although I fear this analogy makes it all too easy to cast the unborn child as hostile.
Yes, I am aware that many of you either do not believe an unborn child qualifies as a person as early as I believe to be the case, or consider the mother's rights to override this, or believe that even if abortion is wrong the consequences of restricting it further would be more disastrous than those of having it legal.
Yes, I am willing to be polite about this. If you can find it in you to try to recognize that from my perspective I am supporting the right to life of people who cannot speak for themselves and refrain from claiming that I want women's bodies to belong to the government, men, or abstract moral principles or that I am against women's rights, I will try to remember to recognize that from your perspective you are defending the rights of women against unfair biology and intrusive legal restrictions and refrain from claiming that you are engaging in the classic practice of deliberately and systematically denying the humanity of a group of people so that so they can be killed at convenience. If you will try to resist the temptation to compare our positions by expressing yours articulately and with nuance and representing mine in oversimplified, offensive, and exclamatory sentence fragments, I will try to return the favor. In fact, I will try to do both of these anyway.
Yes, biology is unfair.
If you wish to defriend me over this post, I admit I may be disappointed, but I will not fight with you over it or dwell on it overmuch.
If you believe my moral stances to be wrong or my preferred approaches to a shared goal to be ineffective, this is only to be expected in some cases.
If you believe I am evil and a threat to the future of the country or humanity, I suppose I shan't be too surprised there either.
If you would like to flame me, I shall ignore you.
If you would like to engage in reasoned discussion on these issues, please find someone else and/or wait a while. I appreciate the attitude and desire, truly, and I praise you for wishing to be productive. Unfortunately, I burned myself out on discussing politics myself previously, to the point that even this post is making me tired. I don't really like debates on the subject, even though I know they are important. So while I'm leaving comments enabled, and obviously you are free and welcome to post rebuttals or reactions here or wherever else you have access, I will admit up front that I'm probably not going to answer or argue with you any time soon.
In short, I'm afraid this has been a monologue. This is probably not so productive as reasoned discussion, but after the other posts I have seen today, I thought I would go ahead and express myself once, and leave it at that. It's probably less unproductive, at least for me, than engaging in full-on online debate, as I have other things I have to get done or would rather do.
Some of you were already aware of this. Some of you may have guessed. Some of you may be extremely surprised.
Now, then.
Yes, this means I prefer Bush's foreign policy to what I would expect from Kerry.
Yes, this means that in general and on balance, I prefer the policies I expect from Bush to those I would expect from Kerry.
No, this does not mean I agree with everything every Republican on earth thinks or does. For one thing, this would be impossible.
Yes, I believe we have the right to free speech. No, this does not mean there is nothing I think should not be said. There is a difference between having the right to do something and having it be a good idea.
Yes, actually, the above item was inspired by an assortment of LJ posts that didn't have anything to do with politics. If you don't know which ones I'm talking about, I'm sure you can think of your own.
No, I am not sure making this post is a good idea, but I am doing it anyway. :)
Yes, I believe that there are and should be many things that are:
morally wrong, but not illegal;
morally right, but not legally required;
illegal, but not morally wrong;
legally required, but not morally demanded;
both illegal and immoral;
both moral and legally required.
Yes, I may very well disagree with you on what falls into which category.
Yes, I do believe that a person's behavior -- as distinct from impulses and desires, but including conscious or "default" decisions as to what to dwell on -- is something that person exerts control over and makes choices about. This does not mean that I am unaware that there are physical and psychological influences on us, but barring the philosophical opinion that there is no such thing as control or choice at all, if our behavior is not under our own control there is generally something wrong.
Yes, I believe that this includes sexual behavior, and I do believe that these things are morally wrong:
sex outside a lifetime mutually committed relationship (yes, I said that instead of "marriage" on purpose)
homosexual sex
divorce for reasons other than adultery or abuse.
Yes, I am aware that I know and in some cases love many people who have engaged or do engage in the above activities. No, I am afraid that knowing or liking someone who does a particular thing does not automatically mean I approve of it. Yes, I believe an act can be morally wrong even if no one is obviously hurt by it.
Yes, I am aware that many good things and much happiness have come from some of the above. I am familiar with the idea that bad behavior can sometimes lead to good results, temporary or longer-lasting, and that good behavior can sometimes lead to painful ones. If you wish (given that I am a Christian) to point out that "by their fruits ye shall know them," I shall point out that this was said in a different context and that the Bible also contains numerous examples of good people suffering and of good things being brought out of evil. The world is not always fair, or for that matter obvious. And honestly? I'm glad if you're happy, and hope that you will continue to be, even if I don't think what you're doing is right.
No, I do not believe that people should be injured or treated rudely for any of the above. Yes, I believe that injuring them or treating them rudely is wrong. Er, that goes for most of the above: if someone has cheated on or abandoned another, unfailing courtesy from the injured party might be very noble but is perhaps a bit much to expect.
Yes, I expect homosexuality (both desire and behavior) to become just as socially accepted and legally recognized as divorce.
Yes, I think there will still be people who think it's wrong. I also think there will still be people who think eating meat is wrong. (Actually, this is only a good analogy if it regards people who consider eating meat immoral for reasons other than the injury caused to the animals. I believe that people who genuinely think other species deserve legal protection from killing for meat/hide/research/whatever are right to push for this legal protection. I still do not agree with them, but that isn't the point.)
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do think divorce -- or rather, the failure to treat marriage as a real and lifelong commitment -- is a much more serious problem than what anybody does outside it or whom they want to marry.
Yes, as it happens, I think that temper, the desire to lash out in anger and hurt another physically or emotionally, is among the urges that should not be indulged, and since indulging it almost automatically hurts another, it is worse than a self-indulgence that hurts no one, or only the individual. Yes, I admit that knowing this intellectually does not mean it's easy to accept emotionally about a sin I'm prone to. That doesn't mean it isn't true.
Yes, I am pro-life.
Yes, I think that this is a question of the definition of murder rather than of legislating about people's private lives.
No, I do not bomb abortion clinics.
No, I am not claiming that your body belongs to a moral stance or that you shouldn't have the right to decide what grows within it.
Yes, I fully believe that your body is your own.
No, I do not believe your child's body is part of yours.
Yes, I believe that once a pregnancy is in progress, there is another person's body involved, and that an unborn child should have legal protection from being killed.
Yes, I'd be reasonably happy with legal protection starting with brain activity.
Yes, I am aware that sometimes abortions are medically necessary. I would compare this to self-defense rather than murder, although I fear this analogy makes it all too easy to cast the unborn child as hostile.
Yes, I am aware that many of you either do not believe an unborn child qualifies as a person as early as I believe to be the case, or consider the mother's rights to override this, or believe that even if abortion is wrong the consequences of restricting it further would be more disastrous than those of having it legal.
Yes, I am willing to be polite about this. If you can find it in you to try to recognize that from my perspective I am supporting the right to life of people who cannot speak for themselves and refrain from claiming that I want women's bodies to belong to the government, men, or abstract moral principles or that I am against women's rights, I will try to remember to recognize that from your perspective you are defending the rights of women against unfair biology and intrusive legal restrictions and refrain from claiming that you are engaging in the classic practice of deliberately and systematically denying the humanity of a group of people so that so they can be killed at convenience. If you will try to resist the temptation to compare our positions by expressing yours articulately and with nuance and representing mine in oversimplified, offensive, and exclamatory sentence fragments, I will try to return the favor. In fact, I will try to do both of these anyway.
Yes, biology is unfair.
If you wish to defriend me over this post, I admit I may be disappointed, but I will not fight with you over it or dwell on it overmuch.
If you believe my moral stances to be wrong or my preferred approaches to a shared goal to be ineffective, this is only to be expected in some cases.
If you believe I am evil and a threat to the future of the country or humanity, I suppose I shan't be too surprised there either.
If you would like to flame me, I shall ignore you.
If you would like to engage in reasoned discussion on these issues, please find someone else and/or wait a while. I appreciate the attitude and desire, truly, and I praise you for wishing to be productive. Unfortunately, I burned myself out on discussing politics myself previously, to the point that even this post is making me tired. I don't really like debates on the subject, even though I know they are important. So while I'm leaving comments enabled, and obviously you are free and welcome to post rebuttals or reactions here or wherever else you have access, I will admit up front that I'm probably not going to answer or argue with you any time soon.
In short, I'm afraid this has been a monologue. This is probably not so productive as reasoned discussion, but after the other posts I have seen today, I thought I would go ahead and express myself once, and leave it at that. It's probably less unproductive, at least for me, than engaging in full-on online debate, as I have other things I have to get done or would rather do.
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