Posted by alexandra_k on August 24, 2018, at 20:02:48
In reply to Re: personal diary correction, posted by alexandra_k on August 23, 2018, at 23:13:36
I really have lost all respect for our government.
I used to trust them. I used to trust they were looking out for the people. I used to trust they made the best decisions they could with respect to helping the people have the things they needed / wanted so they could live good and healthy lives.
And I just don't trust them, anymore.
If there are good, competent people who are interested in looking out for the people... I think they are more likely to be found in the private sector than in government. Government is where you go when you are interested in screwing over the masses to profit yourself. Government is where you go when you don't have the skills or talents or anything at all such that you could make it in the private sector.
I never used to understand why Americans felt so strongly about gun ownership as personal protection. I understand why they do, now. Because the biggest threat to your personal safety is likely to be, not from random civilians, but from government. When you have government employees -- police officers and military forces and so on -- with guns, then you need guns to defend yourself. It isn't necessarily about taking pot shots at the door to door salesman with your bb gun so as he gets the f*ck*ng message that it's time to go. It's about what you do when Stats USA (or whoever) decides it's time to do a 'compulsory intervew survey' of... I don't know... Sexual Health? Maybe an inventory of your assets at your place of residence?
I suppose, at the very least, it's a way out, if you think that there really isn't another way out.
________
I was thinking it was funny (odd, not haha) about this ethics problem we used to ask the first years about... To hear what they had to say...
You say 'you are in a prison / concentration camp in Nazi Germany. You have identical twin kids. They are around 6. The Nazi guard hands you a gun and says you need to shoot one of the kids, you can choose which kid, and if you don't the guart will shoot both kids.'
You ask them: What would you do, and why?
A discussion unfolds about what sorts of differences might be relevant between the twins such that you would be justified in shooting one, rather than the other. Students wonder whether you might be justified in shooting the weaker one, for instance, on the grounds that that one is least likely to survive, anyway. Maybe some wondering about whether that would be.... Not racist, exactly, but picking on the weak -- well -- would it be justified in those circumstances?
What most nobody ever says is: Well, you shoot the guard who put you in that position.
Or... You refuse to shoot either of them. Shooting either one of them would be wrong. You can refuse to do wrong. You aren't making him shoot one or the other or both of them. You are responsible for your actions and he is responsible for his.
But nobody would say any of that.
I wonder if we would get different student responses from more affluent student backgrounds. Backgrounds where people are more likely to have a notion of... Rights.. Healthy self esteem.. That kind of stuff.
I don't know.
I fear...
People view it more as a license to behave badly. To do things they want to do but are typically prevented from. Like how Freud seemed to think that civilisation was this thing we did because we weren't allowed to run around doing whatever we wanted sexually. This idea that people have urges to go around murdering others... Sort of looking for opportunities to do this in a socially sanctioned way. That is why people are so quick to do these sorts of jobs.
Around 3/4 would give electric shocks sufficeint to kill just because someone said 'go on, it's okay'.
I wonder more about these people who won't. What becomes of them.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1100563
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20180816/msgs/1100596.html