> >christopher susi wrote:
> >
> > or maybe challenge
> >others to think in a way they hadn't considered before.
>
> you are aware, of course, that the way *you* think on this topic in this
> discussion is the predominant way of thinking about these issues? it's
> called utilitarian individualism, the ethical philosophy at the center of
> philosophical liberalism (Locke, et al). every single USer in this
> discussion and on this list, i'll bet, has actually grown up thinking much
> like this and sometimes *still* finds it hard to drop this way of thinking.
ROTFL! We should be so lucky!
I hate to break up this little "no I'm the underdog" love-fest, but utilitarian individualism is certainly NOT predominate in the US. "By their fruits ye shall know them". Judge the actions, not the words. Where are all these utilitarian individualists on election day? Voting for Gore and Bush????? Yeah right.
The US is predominately made up of thoughtless robots, programmed for mass consumption and rote work. The robot is only superior if you judge superiority using amount of debt and number of useless toys. The robot knows nothing of utility and lives his life trying to stamp out the little individuality he has. The robots dress alike, talk alike, and think alike. The robot is programmed for fear, and has been conditioned to associate fear and unpleasantness with responsibility, so the robot does anything to abandon responsibility whenever possible.
The equivocation of social darwinism with libertarian political philosophy is absurd. Libertarians believe in cooperation and charity, we just don't want to be forced to cooperate and support charities at the barrel of a gun.
It would be more useful to evaluate the social darwinist theories providing the foundation for programs like affirmative action.
Matt
-- Matt Cramer <cramer at voicenet.com> http://www.voicenet.com/~cramer/ This is the age of decay and hypocrisy, Sometimes I feel like the world isn't ready for me.
-Crispian Mills