Moralization of Political Ideas

[M.J.]

Well that got your attention.

Since I Don't know where this topic should belong, I'll start it here anyway.

I wondered if any of you guys have ever noticed the moralization of political ideas. This is mostly done by the religious right, and of course some of the left. When people are discussing political ideas, they usually say that shouldn't be so, or that is wrong, or that is not right. This is sometimes used without thinking but sometimes people mean it when they try to moralize their political views, by saying my idea is right and anyone elses is wrong.

Since all political institutions are understandable in thier own surroundings. When people look at institutions as wright or wrong they are abstracting it from it's surroundings and can never grasp a full understanding of something when it is looked at in abstract. This by no means implies agreeing with every political idea though.

Do any of you here believe that their are wrong or right political institutions? In the absolute moral sense.

[ December 30, 2001: Message edited by: Sakpo ]</p>

[DemonSpawn]

posted by J.M. on 9/11/2001:

Bring the empire down.

I doubt that it was islamists, they are usually not smart enough for something like this, they are usually caught in the process. It was probably the chinese that hacked the computer, and more power to the commrades.

[x-member]

I would love to say that freedom of the human spirit is the litmus test. I cannot deny that some freedoms come at the expense of others.

[moon]

One thing I think is completely immoral is when somebody starts a thread with a misleading title, just to get people to read it. If your topic is interesting, we will read it. If it isn't, "tricking" us into reading it just makes you look like a fool.

[Sakpo]

J.M, creating misleading thread titles to lure people in is pathetic. For those who didn't see before I intervened, the title was "O.K. I confess who I really am." I opened this thread hoping you had come to your senses and were going to end this ridiculous charade. Instead I just got more evidence you have no respect for anybody here.

[M.J.]

demonspawn

What is that?

So back to the topic.

[Euromutt]

I believe in the correctness of the cntents of the UN Declaration on Human Rights; I don't believe in "moral absolutes", but something that damn near every government on Earth has signed can be recognized as representing a concensus. Admittedly, plenty of signatory governments have tried to wriggle out of living up to it (notably east Asian ones), but the fact that they signed it in the first place indicates they thought it was important (at least to be seen to pay lip service to it).

[manhattan]

Originally posted by M.J.:
<strong>Do any of you here believe that their are wrong or right political institutions? In the absolute moral sense.
</strong>

Political institutions? Well, generally those that advance individual freedom as much as possible are the most moral.

Also, I believe that concealing one's identity while advancing a political viewpoint is inherently immoral. So while I oppose such groups as the IRA, they at least get points for fessing up to their identity when they take an action. By contrast, those groups which deny earlier actions to make themselves appear reasonable in a new context are reprehensible and ought to be, at best, ignored.