Might and Right
Mar. 21st, 2020 12:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithDoes might make right?
Might makes things happen.
It cannot make things morally good.
It cannot escape the natural consequences of things.
For example, in moral terms, indigenous people in the Amazon hold their land and murdering them is wrong.
Under might makes right, they are routinely forced off their land and murdered. People know it's wrong. They just want to take things, and they can, so they do.
Then the country has problems consequent to racism and genocide. These don't go away, or at least, America has suffered them for ~400 years with only minimal improvement.
Furthermore, the people committing theft and genocide upon the indigenous people are also ripping out the planet's lungs, on which we all depend. So this particular consequence is a threat to species survival and the integrity of the biosphere.
And that's why we have morals, to avoid the kind of problems caused by might makes right. Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should.
Might makes things happen.
It cannot make things morally good.
It cannot escape the natural consequences of things.
For example, in moral terms, indigenous people in the Amazon hold their land and murdering them is wrong.
Under might makes right, they are routinely forced off their land and murdered. People know it's wrong. They just want to take things, and they can, so they do.
Then the country has problems consequent to racism and genocide. These don't go away, or at least, America has suffered them for ~400 years with only minimal improvement.
Furthermore, the people committing theft and genocide upon the indigenous people are also ripping out the planet's lungs, on which we all depend. So this particular consequence is a threat to species survival and the integrity of the biosphere.
And that's why we have morals, to avoid the kind of problems caused by might makes right. Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should.
