There is more than enough money available to keep everyone safe in relative isolation, through no cost of their own until the virus is contained and we are well enough prepared to keep it that way. — creativesoul
The problem in the US is not about the ethical choice it made, but about the confused inability to stick to any choice at all. — apokrisis
Sure. There can be a definite act of dissent because there is that one law. You have confirmed what I just said. What would dissent even look like if it wasn't in opposition in this fashion? — apokrisis
The US population could just refuse to go to work, to socially distance, to wear masks and wash their hands. — apokrisis
We are in one kind of thermodynamic regime - powerlaw - and not in another - Gaussian. As an example that makes one of the things we view as a big problem - gaping inequality - just a natural part of what is going on. Therefore eliminating that inequality is going to be hard as it is basically swimming against the tide.
So contra your pigheadedness, my point is that understanding the actual thermodynamical flow that entrains humanity is the only thing that actually could create a “choice” - ethical or pragmatic.
If we want to resist the “is”, and construct out own “ought”, one needs an understanding of history a lot more sophisticated than thinking it is one damn thing after another.
History has a Hegelian structure. It is a dissipative flow. We now have a science of all that. Time to leave your metaphysical nonsense questions in the past where they belong. — apokrisis
I don't have to come up with an answer to that, because I am not in a position of power. — Janus
It's a genuinely tough question, and I can't see how any thinking about thermodynamics would throw any light on it. — Janus
I asked if the American government should do everything it possibly can to minimize the harm caused to Americans. — creativesoul
I replied that the US likes to say the government should keep its nose out of people's business.. — apokrisis
As far as I can tell, you’re using ‘hegelian’ simply to mean that history has a direction -& while I think it’s a confusing word-choice (‘Hegelian’ carries a lot of meaning) I agree that history has a direction. — csalisbury
But I can’t understand your above post without some wedge between ‘is’ and ‘ought’ - if, as you say, It is by understanding how things are that we become able to make a choice and ‘resist’, then there is a space in which to choose that isn’t inevitable. There’s a ‘gap’ in the ‘is.’ — csalisbury
For a while I’ve felt that if ‘free will’ means anything, it involves learning to observe patterns and cycles, including the weak/unstable points that would allow for the disruption of the whole, thereby allowing actual change. and then to ‘wait’ for that moment or part of the cycle to come around again, and act (with and against the pattern.) — csalisbury
(The ‘ought’ that leads to nudging in this direction organically bubbles up as discontent before finding this means of finding a way forward.) — csalisbury
I asked if the American government should do everything it possibly can to minimize the harm caused to Americans. — creativesoul
Why so much resistance? — creativesoul
This pandemic and it's effects/affects, are symptoms of much deeper problems with the US... as is Trump. Symptoms of the unraveling... — creativesoul
You've tossed around Fukuyama recently - have you actually read his book? I've long had a general suspicion about some of your references...How is it the bone in the throat? Do you mean that if everyone self-actualises as the highest personal good, then no one is left to give them respect. Everyone is Superman, no one the crowd? — apokrisis
Oh I see. I didn’t think much of his first book and so I should have read his latest? — apokrisis
That reply is as lame as it gets. You say it is an interesting question until the moment it gets asked. Then run away. — apokrisis
It's an incredibly easy question. Laws tell you what the penalties are for dissent. — apokrisis
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