Quote:
Originally posted by Lebell
But I’m curious why you don’t think a moral high ground exists in politics?
Politics like any other human endeavor has only the qualities human beings bring to it. If we bring morality to it, it will have it. Conversely, if we leave morality out of it, there will be none.
Also, are you an absolute pacifist or were you just against this particular war?
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I'm not an absolute pacifist, i believe in self defense. At this point i need to qualify self defense because depending on who's spinning it, self defense can range anywhere from defending my person from direct assault to shooting somebody i deemed threatening on the subway because i thought that they might have ill intent and the means to act upon it. I think the former is justified but not the latter. There is a point where the rights(i'm talking about god-given rights, not codified rights) of each individual outweigh my desire to put my mind at ease. At this point i think it fairly misleading to paint our actions in iraq as self defense any more than our friend on the subway.
As for politics, there is a phrase that comes to mind. "The good guy always finishes last." Anyone who claims to have the moral high ground is selling something. I know that there is still morality in politics on the very local level, but the higher up you get the more beholden you are to special interests and political games- the more people you owe favors to. What is moral about that?