From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:15:33 PDT
To: meconlen@IntNet.net
Subject: Re: Alt.Gvmt.Bad.Bad.Bad
Message-ID: <199409012015.NAA08437@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Responding to msg by Michael  Conlen:

Theft could be from thoes who do not protect there property and 
from thoes who do not respect others property, so can it also 
be said that 'bad government' can be from people not protecting 
there rights and people who have no respect for the rights of 
others? 
...............................................................

What should really be said is that theft does not happen of its 
own accord;  someone must decide to accomplish the so-called 
criminal act.  To describe theft as the result of another's 
inaction is to imply that human action of any kind is mostly 
automatic, that there is a pull like gravity which will cause 
action upon intelligence the way gravity affects inanimate 
objects, and that nothing better could be or should be expected 
from it.  It is also to imply that the possession of 
intelligence is negligible because any opportunity for taking 
advantage of another's vulnerability will be irresistible to 
humans, as if they were basically scavengers looking for the 
spoils of other people's negligence.

In which case, rather than speaking of bad government, the 
subject should be a question on the existence of intelligence & 
the possibility for morality.  I don't know who would be 
qualified to discuss it, though, without the possession of the 
one and an appreciation of the other.

Blanc