Morals

[andrewducker]

Following on from Allorin's post here, I'm intrigued as to whether peopel think that morals are principles that can be applied to situations or are situational (but you can generalise into principles) or something else...

[Poll #164321]

Comments

[nickys.livejournal.com]

It's all very complicated, because there are conflicting rights in almost all cases. One person's right to do something conflicts with another person's right to be left in peace.

Freedom of speech is often in conflict with the right for people to avoid things that upset them (as we discussed earlier with the example of gruesome anti-vivisection posters being placed where my seven year old can see them as we walk along the street).

[andrewducker]

Of course, some people might feel that by choosing not to be offended by the posters and thus do something about it, you're overruling the animal's right not to be chopped up.

rights being another one of those subjective things.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Disagree.

The message can be the same, without the offensive image. The animals rights aren't protected any more by an offensive message than they would be without one.

[andrewducker]

I disagree that the message is the same without the offensive image. It may be possible to get a similar message across without the image, but it's not the same image. And it's almost certainly a less effective one.

People are very good at ignoring things, and sometimes it takes somebody holding (for instance) a dead Ethiopian child up and saying "look at what is happening, please help us." to make a difference.

Lots more people would be vegetarian if they saw a slaughterhouse. They intellectually know that their steak is hacked off chunk of slaughtered cow, but they don't really emotionall understand what that entails.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Not really. I have no objection to those posters being shown to anyone over voting age, because they have a moral responsibility to know what's going on in the country even if they'd rather not.

But my kids can't vote yet, so there is no purpose in upsetting them over a situation which they have no power to change.

[andrewducker]

Most of the vegetarians I know started in their early teens (or even earlier). An awful lot of habits and prejudices are formed way before we reach voting age.