With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
April 03, 2003 - 1:23 p.m.
In a discussion about affirmative action someone asked why anything has to be done about inequalities in hiring and school admissions. It’s the kind of question I just don’t get. He sees something is wrong but doesn’t think it should be remedied. That goes totally against my grain. In my heart I believe in chivalry, not the reality of the middle ages but the latter day romantic notions of it, the ideals expressed in The Once and Future King. Not “might makes right” but “might for right.” It is not just a right but the duty of those with the power to make things better to do so. It’s true for the individual, for society, and for nations.
In Isaac Asimov’s formulated the Three Laws of Robotics.
- A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
I’ve always felt that the first and third laws make a pretty good foundation rules of morality on par with the Golden Rule. Asimov pointed out the importance of the inaction clause of the first law. Without it a Robot could drop a safe over someone’s head knowing that he is fully capable of catching it. Then once it was released he could do nothing and let it fall. People need the clause too. How is standing by and letting something that you can prevent happen different from doing it yourself?
This makes life more difficult of course. You have to actually make decisions. You have to way the costs and benefits of your actions. Sometimes when you try to help you end up doing more harm. That doesn’t mean you should never help, it means you have to think about what you are doing. You also have to accept that sometimes you’ll be wrong. It happens. When it does all you can do is admit your mistake and try and ameliorate the harm you’ve done.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile April 03, 2003
