What has America become?

"But to say that I am despotic because I do not believe in the viability of any system of beliefs, philosophical or political, that does not acknowledge Good & Evil, is simply wrong"

I say you are very close, if not in the right way, of intellectual despotism, when you denigrate these other beliefs. By the way you and/or others have described Communism as Evil, it is in no way out of possibilities that this condescending attitude will be also (or is also) applied to any dissenting views.

I would also have trouble with beliefs that dissented, and indeed argued, from the Up and Down paradigm. While I would agree that the Aussie would point in a different direction when pointing Up than I would in Alabama (if we were asked to do so from our respective locations), I would think it irrational, if not mad, to insist that there was therefore no Up or Down. There certainly is to me!

Along such paths of thought one can only come to Chaos. But because someone COULD (and many have) appropriate the language of morality as a cloak for despotism does not mean that all who use such language do. In fact, I do not insist upon all such matters in my conversation, but it is frankly ridiculous to insist that Good and Evil are not real and I don't mind saying so. That doesn't make me a despot. (I might be guilty of pomposity, however.)


"The fact that so many of the Westerners who have posted to this thread have expressed an unhealthy tolerance for this [Communsim] wicked revolution, in the name of open-mindedness, demonstrates the need for better education in exactly these principles"

Wicked revolution? So, you would have advised the people of Russia to stay with tsarism? The revolution was not a reaction against a putrid petrified monarchy that wasted the people it was supposed to justly rule and govern?

Sheesh!!! I almost afraid to ask what you think of the French Revolution...

Ask instead what I think of the American Revolution (which was not perfect). Again, the ends do not justify the means. This is the heart of wickedness. The French Revolution became a wicked thing (as Communism cannot help but do). Their NEED for a revolution was (ahem) self-evident.

While I support the Good of revolt against tyranny, I cannot say that such a revolution is good if it turns to Evil, as the French Revolution did, and as the Communist Revolution could not help but do.

I argue against Despotism. It is not Despotism for me to do so.

[c] ~~~[/c]

In our law, there is such a thing as reasonable doubt. If there is a reasonable doubt to the guilt of a person charged with a crime, that person is to be acquited. In America, guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and innocence is presumed. It is the job of the defense lawyer (assuming that correct procedure is followed and we do not throw the case out on a state violation of due process, etc.) to raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury. There must be evidence presented that raises that doubt. Other nations give the benefit of this doubt to the State, and force the Defendant to actually prove his innocence!

In either case, if the self-evident nature of Good and Evil is doubted, it is at least incumbent that this doubt be reasonable.

(For example, I do not think that there was any reasonable doubt that O.J. Simpson murdered his wife and her friend. Unfortunately, the jury in the criminal case acquited him for other considerations.)

I have never yet found a reasonable reason (!) to doubt Good and Evil. Nor has one been offered here.

While one may entertain a doubt about the self-evident, for that doubt to have any chance of concurrence among people of reason, there must be evidence to a contrary effect.

It was argued for a time that one could not question the notion that the world was flat, or that the Earth was at the center of the universe. These notions failed as evidence was eventually presented and accepted by reasonable people.

It was despotism to burn folk at the stake for presenting this evidence, or even for their questioning of the state/religion that enforced the contrary in the expression of people. (To me, the sad thing is that this was done in the name of Christ!)

But, it is not despotism to insist, that if the Order of Things is to be overturned in our minds (ie to accept that Good and Evil are not Real), that there be a reasonable basis for doing so.

I still find no reason to seriously entertain the prospect. Only vague objections to my tone of rhetoric and name-calling.



And finally...

Complacency is the worst of all ills of education and science.

It is not complacency to teach that 2+2=4. It is accuracy. Not much could be taught if we tried to lead the poor child through such higher aspects of number theory or whatever mathematical paradigms contemplate other answers.

It is one thing to use the tools of philosophy to consider the nature of things. It is another to use such tools to question their obvious existence.

Down such paths one may find the rewards of Genius, or the penalties of Madness. (previous stipulations about irrationality vs. insanity aside for the moment)

I think that respectively, the American and French Revolutions tend to prove that. On both sides of the Atlantic, the people desired freedom from the monarchies and philosophically questioned the very nature of Reality as they designed the social contracts for their self-governance. And look at what happened in the aftermath of each...