tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post4172463684733541245..comments2024-03-12T16:53:52.795-04:00Comments on Crypto-Catholic Libertine: The Feast of Stephen and universalismJules Aiméhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-24232304549679535632012-12-31T17:25:29.853-05:002012-12-31T17:25:29.853-05:00Evil is hard, comedy is easy. I never know what t...Evil is hard, comedy is easy. I never know what to say about evil. I look forward to anything you might have to say.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-2496933988506238972012-12-31T16:14:35.329-05:002012-12-31T16:14:35.329-05:00Well I have been trying to write out a reply for a...Well I have been trying to write out a reply for a while now and I can't come up with a really satisfying answer despite writing hundreds of words. I'll try later...Gaiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11691006770731341338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-47144684624601860912012-12-29T19:00:52.236-05:002012-12-29T19:00:52.236-05:00It's a tough issue and I'm not 100 percent...It's a tough issue and I'm not 100 percent sure how I'd answer it. <br /><br />My first move would be to make the question even more complicated by recalling the notion Plato into the mouth of Socrates in The Republic: that the person best positioned to do good is also the person best positioned to do harm. When you put yourself into the hands of a doctor, for example, you are also putting yourself into the hands of the person who, if God forbid she wanted to, could most easily kill you and probably most easily get away with it.<br /><br />From there, it seems to me we have two choices. We could treat the decision to be good instead of evil as some sort of fundamental choice a person makes. This is the view we get in the world of graphic novels. Batman and The Joker are relatively similar in terms of their "virtue", the difference between them is that Batman has made some fundamental choice to fight on the side of good and The Joker on the side of evil. <br /><br />The other avenue we might take is to think of evil in the same terms that the Catholic church thinks of a depraved conscience. That is to say that every time we willing choose to do what we know is wrong or choose not to do good we degrade ourselves. Do this long enough and I will reach a state where I am so depraved that it would make sense to call me evil.<br /><br />But that would be just the beginning .... <br /><br />What are your thoughts?Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-43929239635889707482012-12-29T17:53:01.163-05:002012-12-29T17:53:01.163-05:00This comment is only obliquely related to your pos...This comment is only obliquely related to your post (and also has nothing to do with the comments above). I was wondering about how you think evil fits in with virtue ethics. I’ll explain what I mean. I read McIntyre and Aristotle, some time ago, though I think I read them with an odd and maybe immature attitude, in search of rules that would make immediate sense and would give me a “secret” new way of thinking. Your writing on this blog, especially the application of virtue ethics / moral judgment to stuff like Mad Men or Brideshead, made me understand better what virtue ethics was really about, and actually changed my attitude towards fiction a lot (thanks!). However, I sometimes feel that there is a disconnect between morality as regards a person’s character, and morality regarding the question of good and evil. It seems to me that if a very virtuous person is excellent, a person totally lacking in virtue is just mediocre and weak. In other words a virtue-less person is more like Betty Draper than like a person who carries out massacres. I’m not really sure what virtue ethics can say about a person like that. I’d be interested to hear your comments. Gaiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11691006770731341338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-8932751792811659682012-12-28T21:12:05.726-05:002012-12-28T21:12:05.726-05:00LOL, who's general rule! I think your priorit...LOL, who's general rule! I think your priorities are a little out of whack, you don't seem able to see the bigger issue here. Wayne Lapierre will do just fine, I'm sure the only concern he has about the vitriol directed at him is the degree to which it might make it more difficult for him to do his job. Maybe time to retire, get a new spokesperson who can present a younger fresh face of the NRA.BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-64638531613941928732012-12-28T10:48:16.141-05:002012-12-28T10:48:16.141-05:00As a general rule, and it's a good one, if you...As a general rule, and it's a good one, if you find yourself invoking Hitler as an example or analogy, you can be certain your argument is weak.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-17160553403915018402012-12-27T17:04:50.043-05:002012-12-27T17:04:50.043-05:00I don't know what you're reading, but its ...I don't know what you're reading, but its nothing I wrote. For some reason you need to dismiss the outcry against the NRA as circular logic, which it isn't. I don't hate Lapierre, many do, but I think people can hate those they disagree with on public policy issues if the matter is grave enough.<br />I would consider the slaughter of innocent children a grave matter. I would probably have hated Hitler because of his public policy regarding Jews. BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-80106911078970168552012-12-27T16:30:23.172-05:002012-12-27T16:30:23.172-05:00In other words, you hate him because you hate him ...In other words, you hate him because you hate him and your hatred is justified because you hate him and you're going to keep repeating the same and logic free claims forever because you really hate him and don't forget that you hate him.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-61944607881696049392012-12-27T13:36:50.837-05:002012-12-27T13:36:50.837-05:00People aren't stupid, and they don't get t...People aren't stupid, and they don't get to these watershed moments en masse lightly or on a whim. The innocent slaughter of 20 6 year olds and 7 caring adults pushed people over the edge because it was so beyond the pale, enough where they now demand change. To suggest that its simply a matter of being really conviced that we're right and they're wrong is insulting, and a)does a disservice to the seriousness of this issue and b)fails to recognize that this is democracy in action. The political influence of the NRA is undisputed, even by them. If that influence had been used for a good end, if they had even pretended to have some sense of social responsibility and knew when to moderate their positions, people wouldn't be reacting this way. But in today's world anything short of "getting what I want when I want it" regardless of anyone else is seen as failure. Now its come back to bite them in the ass. I will grant you that the NRA might be taking the fall for all the corporations and industries that exert as much political influence as they do because people are tired of how shamelessly influence is pedaled in Washington, but I can live with that. It doesn't minimize one iota the damage of the work Mr. Lapierre has done. The NRA brought this on themselves, at the very least they were imprudent and way overplayed their hand. It was bound to catch up with them.BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-31018600340199558152012-12-27T12:21:32.129-05:002012-12-27T12:21:32.129-05:00"Enough is enough." In other words, anyt..."Enough is enough." In other words, anything goes if we're really convinced we're right and that "they" are wrong.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-76797228529635198332012-12-27T09:46:07.255-05:002012-12-27T09:46:07.255-05:00I think people reach a point where they say "...I think people reach a point where they say "enough is enough." I just heard on C-Span this morning the little known fact that there are actually very strict laws prohibiting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and other government agencies from tracking and maintaining data on who buys guns and who is prohibited from buying a gun. This, by the way, includes people on the terrorist watch list. If you buy a gun the longest they can hold whatever information you might have given them about you is 24 hrs. This, according to the speaker, was the result of unrelenting lobbying efforts by Mr. Lapierre who, the speaker said, terrorized legislators into passing these laws. So even if we wanted to, there is no legal way at the present time to prevent mentally ill people from buying guns. So Mr. Lapierre goes on TV and argues we should be doing this, but neglects to mention that he and his organization is part the reason we're not doing it. Mr. Lapierre should be vilified, I think democracy will survive--thrive even--as a result of people rising up and saying "Enough!"BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-14845126469799025882012-12-27T07:57:19.221-05:002012-12-27T07:57:19.221-05:00The Church buries suicides for reasons of humility...The Church buries suicides for reasons of humility and charity. Humility because we cannot know how God will judge. Charity because we will always hope that this act was not the result of despair. To go to the other extreme and give a blanket exemption on the grounds that everyone who commits suicide is a victim of mental illness is neither humble nor charitable.<br /><br />Speaking of a lack of charity:<br /><br />"The people who despise Lapierre believe that his public policies--and the gun manufacturers who have profitted from them--are directly responsible for the massacre at Newtown."<br /><br />If we insist on vilifying people who disagree with us, democracy will cease to be possible.Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-11238833897119063312012-12-26T13:38:46.472-05:002012-12-26T13:38:46.472-05:00This is something that, because of its very nature...This is something that, because of its very nature and all the variables, is very difficult to gather empirical evidence to support or refute. The lack of evidence is not because someone did a study that supports what you're saying, its because its virtually impossible to do a real study. If you want to call suicide a form of evil, then are those who commit suicide possessed by demons? Its a way of making sense or rationalizing something that defies rationalization or explanation. Even the Church gives a proper burial to victims of suicide, and yes I believe they are victims. There are no provable answers here, suicide is a tragedy that makes us recoil.<br /><br />The people who despise Lapierre believe that his public policies--and the gun manufacturers who have profitted from them--are directly responsible for the massacre at Newtown. They're looking at the effect of those public policies on real people in the real world.BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-34356387250994956362012-12-26T13:23:18.483-05:002012-12-26T13:23:18.483-05:00As I say, all you're doing here is asserting t...As I say, all you're doing here is asserting that you really want to believe something for which there is no evidence.<br /><br />Second, point, suppose Lapierre is wrong and his suggestions won't work, how does that justify despising the man? Is being wrong about public policy reason reason to be hated?Jules Aiméhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08262535377454858987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2696956101824934089.post-44262409413583640572012-12-26T12:43:08.713-05:002012-12-26T12:43:08.713-05:00You make a couple of good points here, and in so d...You make a couple of good points here, and in so doing you validate your family and friends who despise LaPierre.<br /> "In fact, the majority of suicides show no signs of mental illness before killing themselves."<br />That might be true, I don't know that it is but it might be. One reason could be that these people are undiagnosed. Unless someone is looking closely, its very possible to have a mental illness these days and suffer through it alone. There are many who stay below the radar, live their lives of quiet desperation, go to work and come home, and no one is any the wiser. You don't have to hear voices or see things that aren't there to be mentally ill. Those who are diagnosed receive therapy and/or medication which can help them deal with thoughts of suicide, though that often isn't enough.<br />So, Mr. LaPierre's remedy that we compile a database to prevent people who are mentally ill from acquiring weapons is folly, precisely because so many mentally ill people are undiagnosed and would never get on a database. BobinCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349641483981235572noreply@blogger.com