This is a blog to discuss philosophy, chess, politics, C. S. Lewis, or whatever it is that I'm in the mood to discuss.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Punting to the government for our morals
Why do we always punt to the government to decide whether something is right or not? That is, if we think something is wrong, we want the government to pass a law against it, and if the government doesn't pass a law against it, we assume it's OK? There was a woman in Colorado who was asked why she smoked marijuana during her pregnancy, and she replied by saying that since the government said that smoking pot was legal, she figured it was OK for her to smoke pot while pregnant. The government need not be our moral compass, or abortion, on homosexuality, on marijuana, or on whether it's OK to tell a woman you love her in order to get her to go to bed with you, even though you don't. Nor should it decide whether it is OK to show up at funerals of AIDS victims with "God hates fags" signs. Of course it's not OK, but we don't want the government stopping it either.
OP
ReplyDelete"Why do we always punt to the government to decide whether something is right or not?"
Is that what you do? Who do you personally know that does this? How many of your colleagues do this?
Well, there was the one woman in Colorado...
"That is, if we think something is wrong, we want the government to pass a law against it,"
That is part of our constitutional democratic republican process.
" and if the government doesn't pass a law against it, we assume it's OK? "
I don't know anybody who thinks this way and I very much doubt you do either.
never do that
ReplyDeleteIf you think a teacher isn't keeping order in the classroom, is it punting to the school to ask them to establish rules?
ReplyDelete