Having yet another discussion that ended into “Do not infringe my rights to do what I want” I realize what it is that really bothers me. It is not as simple as saying that it is only, “you are a person that is allowed to do whatever you want and society (government) should not interfere with you” attitude that disturbs me. No, it is more than that. It is first and foremost the assumption that YOUR needs are in focus. That the thing you want to do and what you want is more important than anything else. Rather than seeing you as a part of something bigger, society or a community or whatnot. It really bothers me.
And in combination with “all people are free, have free will and adults should be allowed to do whatever they wish” (the more vocalized argument of allowing prostitution) and “ethic and morals are only something for religious people who wants to pass judgment over me” it gets downright silly. Trust me, if life was so easy and clear cut things would be lovely (maybe even a little boring) but now it is not.
Furthermore, a very common argument (or maybe I should call it excuse since that it was I think it is) is the “don’t put up boundaries just because there are small things you don’t like”. When said in reference to large question in science (stem cells, animal research etc.) or things like what you as an adult can do with your own body and mind.
No, I do not think people in general are free and unbiased and that these people can make educated decisions about all things that can lead to very unforeseen, at the time of the decision, consequences. It is very hard to define a line in certain cases and simplifying the questions really does not help in the end. That is why we would be content and thank our stars that we have “professional” people who use their lives to ask the hard questions and keep the rest of us not falling down the slippery slope too fast or too far gone… we will never be able to climb up again when we loose our footing.
Also, what bothers me is the fact that they use this “individuality” (egocentric) view as an excuse not to care (take responsibility) about other people, this since we are all have free will to make our own decisions in life. Spiced up with the wonderful naïveté that people are unbiased and unattached to feelings and desires of other people (not to mention money…) and therefore that the so called “freedom” of choice is always somewhat murky and biased.
No, I do not believe that people make the right decision, especially since most people tend to choose the simple and wide road rather than somewhat smaller and trickier… it’s just life…
And I do not think we should ban things or keep strict laws about everything, but I do think that certain things might be harmful to us and that if it isn’t directly beneficiary for us… why allow it? Just taking the argument 180 degrees around… sometimes I just tire of people and their so called rights to do whatever they want.
Freedom of speech, I would die for your right to scream your hate to the world – just don’t expect me to smile when I do it. I am doing it since Kant, Hegel, Aristotle, Mill and Voltaire had very good points, most of them called moral, ethics and grounds of value.
2 comments:
*nods*
No one has the right to throw out 5, 6 thousand years of ethical and moral development.
The 'free agent' business comes up smack against the "do no harm" directive that even the weakest moral agent would subscribe to. And that's well before we get to the ideal, "do good". So yeah.
Of course, I do know the context behind this post, and of course I agree ;)
*smiling* yeah... it is just frustrating sometimes since it seems to correlate very well with the "liberation" that took place in the late 60ies and 70ies etc. That is, that we younger who were born in that time, later part of it, are largely over represented in the "I have a right to do what I want and you have no right to tell me otherwise".
[Or it is becuase most of these people are still 'young' but hmm... I don't know if it is a true assumption.]
At least from my point of view we have fewer people that have been educated or simply just talked about morals and ethics... since we are more 'free from church' nowadays etc.
God, I really do detest that free word ;)
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