Correction
Jan. 12th, 2011 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerIn the previous post I said that the only thing that mattered about Jared Lee Loughner and Timothy McVeigh was that they wanted to kill.
I was wrong. I'm sure many people have moments when they want to kill, and then they move on. So the *other* thing that mattered about them, that maybe mattered *more*, was that they saw no (EDIT: sufficient) reason not to.
Christians, and Jews, and Muslims, and atheists, and agnostics, and Hindus, and Buddhists (especially Buddhists, perhaps) all see (EDIT: sufficient) reasons not to kill. ()EDIT: as do pagans, of course, and worshippers of the Spaghetti Monster and anyone else I hadn't thought of.) Some reasons are given in religious scriptures, some arise naturally from the consensus codes of morality by which we live, some are deeply personal. They're all good.
Let me be very, very precise about this: nothing justifies murder. No political ideology, no sacred precept, no failure of justice, no crime, no iniquity, nothing. Murder is never justified. Not even in those rare cases where it becomes necessary, when even I would admit that there was no other choice. Never.
To see no (EDIT: sufficient) reason not to kill is to see no reason. It is to be lost. It is to be pitiable and dangerous at the same time. And it is true of too many people.
EDIT YET AGAIN: and just in case anyone was wondering, I do not believe abortion or contraception are murder.
I was wrong. I'm sure many people have moments when they want to kill, and then they move on. So the *other* thing that mattered about them, that maybe mattered *more*, was that they saw no (EDIT: sufficient) reason not to.
Christians, and Jews, and Muslims, and atheists, and agnostics, and Hindus, and Buddhists (especially Buddhists, perhaps) all see (EDIT: sufficient) reasons not to kill. ()EDIT: as do pagans, of course, and worshippers of the Spaghetti Monster and anyone else I hadn't thought of.) Some reasons are given in religious scriptures, some arise naturally from the consensus codes of morality by which we live, some are deeply personal. They're all good.
Let me be very, very precise about this: nothing justifies murder. No political ideology, no sacred precept, no failure of justice, no crime, no iniquity, nothing. Murder is never justified. Not even in those rare cases where it becomes necessary, when even I would admit that there was no other choice. Never.
To see no (EDIT: sufficient) reason not to kill is to see no reason. It is to be lost. It is to be pitiable and dangerous at the same time. And it is true of too many people.
EDIT YET AGAIN: and just in case anyone was wondering, I do not believe abortion or contraception are murder.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 12:31 pm (UTC)I *think* what I'm thinking of goes (something) like this
I am going to kill you because
* I believe that you are a threat to me
* because I believe that your actions ( as I interpret them ) or what I believe to be your beliefs or opinion give me a reasonable fear.
and
* because you (are obliged to) allow me the freedom of my beliefs
* I am therefore entitled to act on my beliefs in respect of my own life
* and (frankly (attribution acknowledged)) the lives of my wife, my maidservant, my maidservant, my ox, my ass, down to my house and the meagrest of my possessions (or deemed possessions)
And I'm *still* hanging on to my items of self-defence
no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 01:36 pm (UTC)(I know, I know, one for the grapes and one for the soothing body rub...how is the sciatica these days?)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 07:24 am (UTC)The sciatica is bearing up, thank you.
Actually, if visual coveting is all you have in mind, I don't object; G*d (or evolution) made them beautiful, and a work of art isn't really valued unless it's ... well, appreciated.