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Read other letters about this article
I think I have a pretty good grasp of mine.
;-)
Limitations of imagination, comprehension, writing skills, ability
to withstand temptation, and so forth. Recognizing those
limitations, and asking that anyone reading this respect them along
with me, I offer - hastily - my unsolicited two cents:
First off, "No" to torture. Period. exclamation point.
If it is absolutely necessary to present bizarre hypothetical situations in order to derive what should by now be self-evident truths, then my reply would be:
Arguably, if I really thought torturing would yield a great enough good to outweigh the inherent evil, and if the conditions present were dire enough to overcome my normal rationality in favor of a hyper-emotional state lasting more than a couple of minutes, I suppose I might be tempted to give in to the temptation. But that would not make me right. Period. Exclamation point!
These "thought experiments" really puzzle me sometimes. Where do
we draw our lines? Why hasn't anyone asked this one: If raping the
innocent six year-old daughter of a terrorist would compel that
terrorist to release your family member hostage, would you do it?
This seems ridiculous to me, but I remind myself: we humans are
complicated apes (or at least we think we are). I think that
if you must jump through all sorts of theoretical hoops to either
accept or reject torture, you are over-thinking the question.
But maybe that's just me.
About the somewhat OT Revolution topic:
A while back, some of us initiated a blog site nominally dedicated to exploring the nuts and bolts of making direct action happen in these times. The site is called Achieving Our Country and the invitation remains open to all to drop by. The earliest posts actually duplicate some of the items discussed in this thread (later posts vary in specific relevance to the site's stated purpose, but are at least tangentially related to asserting our inalienable rights). If anyone wants to be a contributor, all she needs to do is ask via the comment section.
ps- I remember participating in a nation-wide general strike last year, but it had zero impact. I did not do a very good job.
pps- This is probably another one of those times that I should resist the impulse to hit [Send], but here goes....
No kings,
