Clipmarks | Morality Clips

The Lure of Socialism

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:24:39 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Quoting Bastiat in The Law, 1850.

Now this must be said: When justice is organized by law—that is, by force—this excludes the idea of using law (force) to organize any human activity whatever, whether it be labor, charity, agriculture, commerce, industry, education, art, or religion. The organizing by law of any one of these would inevitably destroy the essential organization—justice. For truly, how can we imagine force being used against the liberty of citizens without it also being used against justice, and thus acting against its proper purpose?

Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.

This is the seductive lure of socialism.

Freedom?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:38:57 GMT

clipped by: rvnurse2b

Clip Source: shop.wnd.com

Americans have come to tolerate, embrace and even champion many things that would have horrified their parents' generation – from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion-on-demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade-schoolers. Does that mean today's Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David Kupelian. But they have fallen victim to some of the most stunningly brilliant and compelling marketing campaigns in modern history.

For example, few of us realize that the widely revered father of the "sexual revolution" has been irrefutably exposed as a full-fledged sexual psychopath who encouraged pedophilia. Or that giant corporations voraciously competing for America's $150 billion teen market routinely infiltrate young people's social groups to find out how better to lead children into ever more debauched forms of "authentic self-expression."

Tags: morality, sex, children, teens, evil, good, porn

Religious Hate Speech

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:21:31 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: The view from one of the believers. If you care to wade through this drivel you will be entertained by a multitude of false assertions, straw men, and arguments from ignorance. The depth of illogic is stunning. It's sad that many people who read this sort of crap swallow it as readily as they do the dogma behind it.

Clip Source: www.dailyevergreen.com

Atheism has no morals

We are special, reducing our complexity is wrong

The Daily Evergreen

Published: 10/07/2008

The pure materialist atheism that is supported by such prominent atheists as Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion” and developer of the theory of memes, lacks any morality and justifies the world’s worst atrocities. Often you may hear Dawkins and others telling people what they should and shouldn’t do, so let’s examine their moral credibility from their own principles.

Pure materialism rejects the existence of anything beyond matter and its interactions. When all events in the universe are reduced to the colliding of atoms, there’s no room for good or bad. These interactions are purposeless and irrational.

Because of this reductionism of everything, materialists argue that humans are the same as animals, thus taking away the dignity humans have.

1

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:47:48 GMT

clipped by: mmaher11

Clip Source: www.doctorhugo.org

"Seven Blunders of the World"

1. Wealth without work

2.

Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without character

4. Commerce without morality

5. Science without humanity

6. Worship without sacrifice

7. Politics without principle

—Mahatma Gandhi

S&M Porn Illegal-Real Life Torture-OK!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:39:16 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: But for our highest government officials, including the ones responsible for this prosecution, we have a different story altogether. In 2002, the Bush DOJ radically re-defined "torture" and illegal treatment of detainees to exclude anything that falls short of "the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." The DOJ's John Yoo even decreed that the President could legally order "'scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance' thrown on a prisoner" and possibly even "slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb."

Clip Source: www.salon.com

In seeking a more lenient sentence, one of Little's attorneys argued that the videos were not sadomasochistic. "Urine and vomit, our argument is, isn't sadistic or masochistic," James Benjamin said.
"What about humiliation?" the judge asked.

That, Benjamin replied, isn't in the legal definition of sadomasochistic.

"Clearly, there seemed to be pain," Bucklew said.

That was acting, Benjamin said. "The person that was involved in the conduct sat [in court] with a smile on her face and wrote your honor a letter saying, 'Judge, this was a beautiful part of my life.'"

"I don't even think this is a close call," the judge said. The videos portrayed "sadistic conduct . . . This is clearly degrading, clearly humiliating and intended to be so."

UPDATE: Put another way, top Bush administration officials have been immunized and protected despite -- according to a former U.S. Army Major General -- being responsible for real sadistic obscenities (i.e., "war crimes") as illustrated by these:

Tags: hypocrisy, law, crime, torture, stupidity, morality, police

OSHO: Your morality is not real

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:55:45 GMT

clipped by: Michael Black
clipper's remarks: OSHO TALK: All the religions are based on God. Their morality, their commandments, their prayers, their saintliness – everything points towards God, and you say that God is dead. Then what will happen to all these great things that are dependent on the concept of God?

Clip Source: video.google.com

[Video]

Tags: seminar

Nationalism vs. Patriotism

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 08:40:57 GMT

clipped by: darkduskx
clipper's remarks: In the light of what has been said we understand how utilitarianism, the doctrine which defines morality not in terms of what is good but of what is advantageous, threatens the freedom of individuals and nations and obstructs the building of a true culture of freedom. Utilitarianism often has devastating political consequences, because it inspires an aggressive nationalism on the basis of which the subjugation, for example, of a smaller or weaker nation is claimed to be a good thing solely because it corresponds to the national interest. No less grave are the results of economic utilitarianism, which drives more powerful countries to manipulate and exploit weaker ones.

Clip Source: www.vatican.va

we need to clarify the essential difference between an unhealthy form of nationalism, which teaches contempt for other nations or cultures, and patriotism, which is a proper love of one's country. True patriotism never seeks to advance the well-being of one's own nation at the expense of others. For in the end this would harm one's own nation as well: doing wrong damages both aggressor and victim. Nationalism, particularly in its most radical forms, is thus the antithesis of true patriotism, and today we must ensure that extreme nationalism does not continue to give rise to new forms of the aberrations of totalitarianism. This is a commitment which also holds true, obviously, in cases where religion itself is made the basis of nationalism, as unfortunately happens in certain manifestations of so-called "fundamentalism".

Ven. Dogo Barry Graham on judgments, judgmentalism, and Buddhism

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:01:38 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: www.buddhistchannel.tv

The word judgmental has become one of the most common pejoratives used by westerners drawn to Buddhist practice, and that makes sense. But too many people make the mistake of thinking that not being judgmental means not making judgments.

This view is simply amoral, and stands in contradiction to the Buddha Dharma.

This view combines intellectual laziness with moral cowardice, and is the quintessence of what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called "idiot compassion" - a superficial egalitarianism that is not compassionate at all.

Buddhism, in fact, is based upon making judgments. The Buddha judged that people were causing needless suffering to themselves and others, and that this was a bad thing.

The great master Dogen said it best: "Enlightenment without morality is not yet enlightenment. Morality without enlightenment is not yet morality."

Silence is not neutral; it always supports the liar, the phoney, the abuser, the oppressor. It is the duty of a Zen monk to speak out, to challenge

Tags: buddhism, judgmentalism, judgment, dogo-barry-graham

Cool Hand Paul

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:00:04 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Now that was a beautiful man. And not only physically.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Paul Newman taught me how to peel a cucumber.

So when the man who has made $250 million for charity with Newman’s Own dressings and sauces asked me to help him make a salad in 1986, while I was writing a profile of him for The Times Magazine, I mangled my cucumber so thoroughly that he snatched it away and showed me how to do it.

“Everything is about what’s winnable, not about the morality of the issues,” he told me

He said he was not like his sultry, flamboyant characters: “You don’t always have Tennessee Williams around to write glorious lines for you.”

He recalled how utterly flummoxed he was the time a stunning call girl approached him on Fifth Avenue and offered to dispense with her fee.

With a Butch Cassidy grin, he told me that he pictured his epitaph being: “Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown.”

History repeating its self in Palin,s world view?

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:58:49 GMT

clipped by: chedare
clipper's remarks: Sarah,s not so hot, each to his own opinion but free speech must be preserved. Obama is slick but naive Putin would bluff him I think, make all vote @ see about democracy in action.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

“The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press — in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of Liberal excess during the past years.”

— Adolph Hitler - Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1,

Government

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:12:05 GMT

clipped by: bunnystop44
clipper's remarks: oh so true

Clip Source: www.urbandictionary.com

Government 743 up, 115 down

A money-driven conspiracy of liars, cheaters, and conartists claiming to control all morality. They assume that they know everything, including the difference between right and wrong, but to not realize how hypocritical they truly are. They will create their own destrution, while their victoms sit and watch them fall.

Tags: government, liars, bush, mccain

A predetermined morality

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:23:59 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Surprisingly, our emotions do not appear to have much effect on our judgments about right and wrong in these moral dilemmas. A study of individuals with damage to an area of the brain that links decision-making and emotion found that when faced with a series of moral dilemmas, these patients generally made the same moral judgments as most people. This suggests that emotions are not necessary for such judgments.
These studies suggest that nature handed us a moral grammar that fuels our intuitive judgments of right and wrong. Emotions play their strongest role in influencing our actions—reinforcing acts of virtue and punishing acts of vice.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

Is Morality Natural?

On Jan. 2, 2007, a large woman entered the Cango caves of South Africa and wedged herself into the only exit, trapping 22 tourists behind her. Digging her out appeared not to be an option, which left a terrible moral dilemma: take the woman's life to free the 22, or leave her to die along with her fellow tourists? It is a dilemma because it pushes us to decide between saving many and using someone else's life as a means to this end.

nature provides a universal moral grammar, designed to generate fast, intuitive and universally held judgments of right and wrong

Moral Sense Test (moral .wjh.harvard.edu), a site presenting dilemmas

moral dilemmas because there are no clear-cut answers that obligate duty to one party over the other

What is remarkable is that people with different backgrounds, including atheists and those of faith, respond in the same way.

why they make their decisions, most people are clueless

, but confident in their choices

clear win in terms of lives saved

Tags: morality, nature, society, similarity

Saying "you should know better than to stand up for your rights" is abhorrent

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:50:15 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: From a thread on BoingBoing, discussing 9/21/07,

the day on which 19-year-old MIT engineering student Star Simpson walked into Boston's Logan International Airport wearing a home-made light-up sweatshirt, and asked an airport worker for information about a friend's arriving flight.

...in a persisting environment of anxiety over terrorism, a Boston Logan Airport worker mistook Star Simpson's LED-adorned wearable tech garment for a suicide bomb. That airport worker phoned Boston police. A small misunderstanding over a hoodie quickly became a surreal debacle during which police said they came close to killing Ms. Simpson.

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

We're talking about an expediency vs. morality tradeoff here. Everyone gets to choose whether to be a hero or keep their head down. But for someone else to say she should keep her head down is to use "should" to advise against morality. I'm not ready to concede that word for cynics' use.

Because it is cowardice to cover your head when you have a perfect right to be yourself. It's soul-killing to spend your life trying to guess people's worst reactions. If you don't stand up and be yourself, you're also not standing up for everyone else. Even if it seems a necessary expedient, adapting to evil still promotes evil, it paves the way. Telling other people to adapt to evil even more so.

So if your choice of battles is to retreat, go ahead. Just don't tell us you're smarter than the hero, she's making mistakes, or she should imitate you.

Tags: politics, jackbootery, morality, courage, philosophy

Metaphors of the Mind

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:33:04 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Interesting read on the connection of thoughts and sensations...

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty

You recently demonstrated that being socially excluded from a group can make people feel colder, so that they believe a room is colder and prefer warm drinks and snacks, such as hot coffee and soup

research is consistent with recent theories on embodied cognition as well as general research on the connection between mind and body.

Another example would be the relation between morality and physical cleanliness.

incubation effect,” a hypothesis that a period of inattention can facilitate problem solving.

The development of identity is a fluid process. Although people certainly differ in how they view themselves, their identity can also be primed or manipulated.

Tags: language, abstract, identity, physics

The gut feeling...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:42:28 GMT

clipped by: earnric
clipper's remarks: A good read...

Clip Source: www.edge.org

For my dissertation research, I made up stories about people who did things that were disgusting or disrespectful yet perfectly harmless. For example, what do you think about a woman who can't find any rags in her house so she cuts up an old American flag and uses the pieces to clean her toilet, in private? Or how about a family whose dog is killed by a car, so they dismember the body and cook it for dinner? I read these stories to 180 young adults and 180 eleven-year-old children, half from higher social classes and half from lower, in the USA and in Brazil. I found that most of the people I interviewed said that the actions in these stories were morally wrong, even when nobody was harmed. Only one group—college students at Penn—consistently exemplified Turiel's definition of morality and overrode their own feelings of disgust to say that harmless acts were not wrong. (A few even praised the efficiency of recycling the flag and the dog).

Tags: reason, morality, gut feelings