tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19184418.post7882016310982084157..comments2024-03-09T22:15:04.984-08:00Comments on Global Paradigms: Movies and politics: The Host and The Lives of OthersLeon Hadarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07074306142674999554noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19184418.post-84410120737312166332007-03-14T12:05:00.000-07:002007-03-14T12:05:00.000-07:00hello rlaing... Lenny bruce put the kibosh on ab...hello rlaing...<BR/> <BR/>Lenny bruce put the kibosh on absolutism in the 50's with his POW bit about guys captured in Korea-"name, rank and serial # that's all you're gettin' out of me...huh...what's that you're doing with... <BR/><BR/>It's always been go along to get along except for that declining in percentage terms subset of humans raised as children with absolutes...Ayn Rand's philosophy works a lot better without children(as they play a tiny part in her books). An old WASP told me late one night the painful truth that life is a series of compromises.<BR/><BR/>My take on this question was to have an a is a attitute on as many of life's questions as possible. I raised my children to look to their life sense and try to figure the clear right and wrong on as many questions as possible. Only by nailing down all that you can to a moral certainty will you have the strength and peace of mind to tackle those shades of grey that are Art rather than Science. The more you leave life open to relativism, the more you sentence yourself to misery. <BR/><BR/> WHBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19184418.post-32055111120012303982007-03-13T14:27:00.000-07:002007-03-13T14:27:00.000-07:00I love the term 'moral relativity', because it des...I love the term 'moral relativity', because it describes so well how 'morality' actually works. The <I>emotion</I> of moral outrage is only 'absolute' in the sense that we either feel it or we don't; but when you move to the question of the conditions that lead people to experience this emotion, then it becomes plain that 'morality' as a system is very much <I>relative</I>. <BR/><BR/>As a function of <B>distance</B>: virtue is a virtue to the extent that responsibility for it is 'here', and a vice is a vice to the extent that liability for it is 'there'. So although the 'virtue' of defeating the Nazis plainly belongs for the most part to the Russians, few American can remotely imagine such a thing: instead they are quite convinced that 'we' did that. Similarly, the 'sin' of shooting down civilian airliners is plainly a great crime when perpetrated by the Russians (KAL 007), but most likely the fault of the victims when the U.S. does the same thing (IR655). <BR/><BR/>As a function of <B>scale</B>: an individual can feel remorse over a bad act, whereas a nation cannot. So although many Japanese soldiers now feel quite badly about their participation in various crimes of WWII, their government still prefers to deny that any crimes were committed at all. <BR/><BR/>When someone talks about 'moral relativity' (or moral equivalence), what they are unconsciously codemning is moral absolutism: the notion that a crime is a crime without regard to the actors, since as everyone knows, <I>we</I> are capable, at the very worst, of being overzealous in pursuit of our 'high ideals'--i.e., of being <I>too good</I>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19184418.post-5717878327018514392007-03-12T23:24:00.000-07:002007-03-12T23:24:00.000-07:00The cultural elite in Hollywood gave the "Lives of...The cultural elite in Hollywood gave the "Lives of Others" the Oscar for Best Foreign Film over the pro-leftist "Pan's Labyrinth." <BR/><BR/>It was a weird year for the Oscars in that I didn't have much too complain about: The Departed, Helen Mirren, Forrest Whitaker, The Lives of Others. Thumbs up!Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.com