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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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August 23, 2005
"Morality" and political assassination
In response to my slightly bemused report that Rev Pat Robertson had advocated the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, I got this thoughtful response from Lee Richards of A Dreamer's Holiday.
Anyone like to join me in mourning the demise of the image of America and Americans we once treasured--largely idealistic, altruistic, truthful, just, tolerant, peace-seeking, working to improve--not perfect, but still a shining example of freedom, democracy and national responsibility to the world. Now, we have those like Al advocating "whacking" someone HE decides is a "thug dictator", and soft-pedaling Robertson's vileness as "he's just advocating public policy."
He has no right to advocate murder as a policy of America in my name or the name of any other U.S. citizen who is revolted by such suggestions. When and where did we get the divine right to run every other country on the planet, and why should anyone in the world respect us ever again if we even consider becoming a nation of wanton political killers?
To which I reply:
Lee, you've got at least a couple of different issues there. One, "He has no right to advocate murder as a policy of America." Well, yes Robertson absolutely does have that right. It's free constitutionally protected political debate about what our government should do.
Now, whether what he's advocating in this particular case makes sense is a different issue. I don't have a strong opinion about Chavez one way or another really, and certainly would not advocate killing him. That would be creating a lot of bad PR for US, if nothing else, and clearly would not be in our overall interest.
On the other hand, yes I think we should most definitely reserve the possibility of just goddam WHACKING a deserving dirtbag from time to time.
I so much do not have any desire to play world police, but our stuff is all interconnected, and people want to come from other parts of the world to kill US here at home.
Thinking forward for example, if it were a viable option- which it might not ever would be- I would say it would be an absolute moral imperative to consider killing some Iranian mullahs rather than letting these extremely vicious and unstable people acquire nuclear weapons.
You can reach for your smelling salts, but all the indignant whining about being revolted and losing respect won't deter those mullahs from getting and using weapons.
Perhaps you'd consider it morally superior to just let it all go until Israel or US ends up having to use nuclear weapons against Iran, rather than considering unpleasant options like political assassination.
I, however, would consider that LESS rather than more moral. Any true morality has to mesh with the real world. If your idea of morality means that we have to just sit back and let many thousands of people die rather than killing a handful of deserving dirtbags to try to prevent it, then your idea of morality is a false and invalid one empirically.
ADD YOUR COMMENTS
posted by Al at 8/23/2005 05:32:00 PM
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