Good and Evil and Moral Dilemmas

I am reading a dissertation about Moralism and Morality. The premise is that world conflicts will not be solved through political or government solutions. The only solution is the moral one. This is where definitions about morality and the moral is important. The problem in his analysis is moral realism. Everyone assumes that his "morality is Truth" and that another's is "False". Religions further inflate and enlarge the ante in such conversations, I think. I am still reading and thinking through his premises. One quote he ends with is Solzhenitsyn's. I added some from Nietzsche because he understood also, this point, I think.

“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere


insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate

them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and

evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to

destroy a piece of his own heart?”54

—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ( (1974).
The Gulag Archipelago


Nietzsche quotes;

 A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.




In heaven all the interesting people are missing.

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.


Man is the cruelest animal.


The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.


The overman...Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment.


To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.


But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!


What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?
 
 
Nations have different ways of approaching situations and understandings that make for conflict. Is there a way of compromise where both parties are co-operating, instead of battling to the "end"? Does there have to be a "winner and loser", or can we "all win" something that makes for a 'better place"?

The Power of the Mind via Albert Einstein

The unleashing of power of the atom bomb has changed everything


except our mode of thinking, and thus we head toward unparalleled

catastrophes.”

—Albert Einstein
 
 
I wonder what Einstein would think and say about the conflicts we fact today?

The Movie, "The Power of Words"

Interesting movie tonight on a DVD we bought for a couple of dollars. The theme was about trauma and its effects.

The nurse doctored a patient who'd lost his sight due to an explosion on an oil rigg, was the main character. She was withdrawn and obviously emotionally distant, but no one knew the reason, until the tension had built in the moive such that when she revealed "her secret", the audience could "feel a release" of tension, which added to the feeling of anger toward her revelation, i.e., the problem.

The secret was of her political and emotional abuse by the police in her country of Yugoslavia. She's been repeatedly raped, seen her best friend die in front of her, bleeding slowly to death. She had witnessed an officier putting a gun in the hands of another prisoner and "helping" her insert the gun into her vagina, pulling the trigger. Such emotional and physical abuse one cannot imagine. But, the full impact was revealed by her psychologist to her former patient.

The patient had fallen in love with her, but she left him before he had had surgury to regain his eyesight. The fully recovered patient found her psychologist and asked if she could help him. The psychologist warned him that she would be affected possibly forever by such experiences. The effect of surviving such an incident is "shame". The questions that continue to haunt her about her survival when the rest had died would not be easy to get over, if at all..  But, he still wanted to find her.

When he finally found her, he gave her the satchel she'd left behind. She started to walk away, only to hear him tell her he wanted her to come with him. She told him that she was afraid that if she did, she'd start to cry at some point and never be able to stop and they'd both drown. He smiled and told her he'd learn to swim.

The pain she carried in her heart was not something that can be reconciled with any belief in "Providence", God, or a caring or just world. That kind of pain is brought about by those that seek to inflict their control and domination of others. Such behavior is more common in groups, where there is a comaradie about why "the other" deserves such abuse. Those that are different and outside the scope of humankind.

What is "humankind"? What makes us all human? The ability to think, reason, feel and commit to certain behaviors? Humans have a lot to learn before we all will come to understand all the answers to that question. But, the answers might just give us insight into how to prevent such atrocities in the future.

Political Problems Will Always Exist

The news headlines for a few weeks have featured Iran's elections and peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Elections are a "right"in free societies. But, human rights are ignored in regimes that do not want or allow individual freedom of choice. There is a belief in Iran that the elections were rigged. Certain "kidnappings" have occurred to the ones supporting the opposition party, even though the law supports the right to voice difference. Rigged elections do not allow the "voice" to the individual or certain groups that differ in political agenda. This is not an unusual occurance, as power is hard to over-ride in these regimes, as there are no "checks and balances" as in our government.

I have become concerned recently at the large number of powerful posistions that this adminstration has "appointed" without accountability to the electorate. Is this a step to undermine our Constitutional government, as a representative republic?

This morning it was reported that Israel has offended the Palestianians with certain absolute non-negotiables, such as Israel's right to the land granted to them as a state and the right to Jerusalem. It seems that the Palestianians are forced to maintain a tribal identity, as they do not have a nation state that identifies their legitimacy. Personal identity is associated with one's nation, as well as familial culture.

I do not know the answer to this one, as there are conflicting stories about who has the right to Jerusalem and why and where boundaries should be established in maintaining borders between the two peoples. Without a country and home, the Palestianians do not have a "voice". But, terrorism and violence is not the answer or solution to resolve these tensions.

It seems that the persecuted "need" resolution of their denied identity by restitution of those who have limited their identity. This action affirms their "right to life and liberty" and their pursuit of happiness. Many countries granted that right to the Jews in granting them a nation and granting them a right to their own land. How are we to negotiate between two persecuted parties, who continue to persecute the "other"?

Rational choice has been useful in bringing about peace in many instances to conflicting countries, but generations of conflict over interests do nothing to make the way clear for "hearing" the other and compromising or negotiating. Emotions have become attached to certain "bulwarks" of conflict that make these stumbling blocks hard, if not impossible, to overcome.

The real world does not act based on compassion, goodness, and understanding, but on interests. Interests are not "right or wrong", just different. Justice is bringing about a equal hearing and coming to terms with the ultimate issue concerning conflict. Therefore, it behooves all of us to be aware of what our interests are and base our negotiation on what we are willing and unwilling to compromise.