| |
 |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 |
THE WEB IS IN THE STATE OF NATURE: So I wrote, some time back, and I am still pondering the consequences of that statement. Should we impose law on the Internet? Without taking into account the difficulty of the enterprise, is it desirable, even from a moral perspective? Who wouldn't obliterate a million pornographic sites, if one could? But under what principle, and with what authority?
I have no answers. I have a feeling: the Internet is the most American of media, precisely because it is a kind of Wild West of the human soul - and I'd hate for that to be tamed. Here personal character - morality in action - really counts, since there are no cops to cow one into good behavior.
The Sophistpundit has a long reflection on this, and other related subjects, appropriately titled "Neither God nor Beast." He demonstrates, in specific terms, touching on actual people he has met through his blog, how the Internet can work as an open society of competing ideas, propounded by tolerant minds. I found it moving; I predict you will too.
9:54:03 PM 
|
|
GENOCIDE IS PAINLESS: A confused Alex Hinton lectured America about "The Lessons of the Killing Fields." He seemed unaware those fields were in Cambodia, not Texas, and the killing had been perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, not the neocons. It now turns out, according to this Boston Globe article by Karen Coates, that the original Khmer Rouge, those who are still around, remain unpunished, and are likely to die of ripe old age without paying for their crimes. So the real lesson of the killing fields is: one can murder hundreds of thousands of human beings with impunity. What are the odds it won't happen again?
UPDATE: It's already happening - in Darfur, according to this NYT piece by Nick Kristoff. He blames President Bush for not speaking out on the subject. I'm not sure Kristoff is right about the situation in the Sudan at the moment. I've heard more optimistic reports, and I know the U.S. Government is keenly interested in the outcome. But we can make this a test case: whether good intentions and international pressure can end the violent death of innocents.
9:13:37 PM
|
|
© Copyright 2005 Vulgar Morality.
|
|
|
|
|
