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Current Events » in reply to You're wrong on this one.

Once again, you miss the point
Mary Anne — (archived)

Once again, you turn it to say that I'm saying that Bush the man and Saddam the man are equivalent. I'm not. Once again, you turn it to say that I'm saying that the American government and the former government of Iraq are the same. I'm not.

I am telling you that civilization demands a code of law, because to rely on belief in one's own rectitude is to give that same rationale to everyone else. We all believe we are right.

To say that "we" are better than "they" are, on the world stage, with its plethora of ideas, is to talk to ourselves and our appreciative audience of those like us. It makes no impression upon those who are not like us. History is full of such arguments. They are mostly settled by seeing who has the bigger stick.

What is needed is a structure in which to moderate these discussions and and mediate the disagreements. Mediation is done through legal stuctures. Moderation is done through the exchange and debate of ideas. Neither of these appear on the battlefield, which is where conflict goes when law breaks down.

As we are so much better than the tyrannies of the world, we owe it to the world to set a better example than following the rules except when they get in the way. Rules of evidence, for example.

Regards--
Mary Anne

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