Future Immorality
Feb. 11th, 2006 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
"Slavery is wrong, and if it is not wrong, nothing is wrong," Lincoln said.
He also said "My aim is to save the Union. If I could save the Union by freeing the slaves, I would. If I could save the Union by leaving the slaves alone, I would. And if I could save the Union by freeing some slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
For which many people condemn him these days. He knew that by saving the Union he would also end slavery. It was already dying elsewhere in the Westernized world. In fact, only in the US and Brazil did it survive. But people condemn him for not taking an absolute moral stand to destroy it immediately, even if doing so would have meant losing the War and perpetuating slavery for ten or twenty more years.
Slavery is wrong, and has always been wrong-- at least ever since factory owners learned it was cheaper to hire line workers by the hour. That's much cheaper, because you have no obligation to keep them on when sales slow or to support them when they become sick or old. You can just kick them out the door to starve on the streets, and as long as that isn't where you can see it as your carriage takes you from your mansion to your mill, it's all good.
And then there's Mark Twain, radical leftist, outspoken enemy of colonialism at a time when this was seen as bringing God and civilization to devil-worshippers who had neither. The man who once said "When you find yourself agreeing with the majority, it's time to reform." Condemned as racist for the crime of putting the N-word into the mouth of an ignorant redneck kid who would have used it every day of his life, at a time when that word wouldn't become anything to worry about for another hundred years.
Yup, we're good at condemning our historical figures for not being so bright and moral as we are. Jefferson and Washington kept slaves, for example, at a time when slavery was normal throughout the world and had been in every civilization since the days of Abraham.
I wonder what our descendants will condemn us for? Because obviously, whatever-it-is is wrong, and always has been. They'll be so much wiser than we.
I think.. factory work. Making humans do jobs that are obviously fit only for robots is immoral, especially when robots are cheaper.
Private automobiles. These will become the source of a great moral revulsion some time after autopilots for cars become standard. At that time it will be cheaper and easier for you to schedule an autocab to take you to work; to demand a garage and a parking space for your own private personal transportation module will be wasteful and greedy and evil, and will always have been.
Meat. We will discover how cruel and unecological that is about the time that a cheaper, good-tasting synthetic version comes along.
Coal-burning. How could the old folks have been so evil as to contribute to global warming, when they had nuclear power available? Granted it's not as good as our cold fusion plants and delta-ray intermodulators, but surely it is evil and always has been.
Yupyup, it's really easy to form a moral revulsion about something when you don't benefit from it any more.
He also said "My aim is to save the Union. If I could save the Union by freeing the slaves, I would. If I could save the Union by leaving the slaves alone, I would. And if I could save the Union by freeing some slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
For which many people condemn him these days. He knew that by saving the Union he would also end slavery. It was already dying elsewhere in the Westernized world. In fact, only in the US and Brazil did it survive. But people condemn him for not taking an absolute moral stand to destroy it immediately, even if doing so would have meant losing the War and perpetuating slavery for ten or twenty more years.
Slavery is wrong, and has always been wrong-- at least ever since factory owners learned it was cheaper to hire line workers by the hour. That's much cheaper, because you have no obligation to keep them on when sales slow or to support them when they become sick or old. You can just kick them out the door to starve on the streets, and as long as that isn't where you can see it as your carriage takes you from your mansion to your mill, it's all good.
And then there's Mark Twain, radical leftist, outspoken enemy of colonialism at a time when this was seen as bringing God and civilization to devil-worshippers who had neither. The man who once said "When you find yourself agreeing with the majority, it's time to reform." Condemned as racist for the crime of putting the N-word into the mouth of an ignorant redneck kid who would have used it every day of his life, at a time when that word wouldn't become anything to worry about for another hundred years.
Yup, we're good at condemning our historical figures for not being so bright and moral as we are. Jefferson and Washington kept slaves, for example, at a time when slavery was normal throughout the world and had been in every civilization since the days of Abraham.
I wonder what our descendants will condemn us for? Because obviously, whatever-it-is is wrong, and always has been. They'll be so much wiser than we.
I think.. factory work. Making humans do jobs that are obviously fit only for robots is immoral, especially when robots are cheaper.
Private automobiles. These will become the source of a great moral revulsion some time after autopilots for cars become standard. At that time it will be cheaper and easier for you to schedule an autocab to take you to work; to demand a garage and a parking space for your own private personal transportation module will be wasteful and greedy and evil, and will always have been.
Meat. We will discover how cruel and unecological that is about the time that a cheaper, good-tasting synthetic version comes along.
Coal-burning. How could the old folks have been so evil as to contribute to global warming, when they had nuclear power available? Granted it's not as good as our cold fusion plants and delta-ray intermodulators, but surely it is evil and always has been.
Yupyup, it's really easy to form a moral revulsion about something when you don't benefit from it any more.
