Yep, I admit there’s two arguments. My secondary line of attack is that there was nothing “necessary” about the things Pinochet did, and that in regards to the rule of law and sustainable democracy he wrecked what Allende was trying to create.
But my primary line is that some “rational” arguments should be simply censored when their advocates don’t even bother with hypotheticals but point to the unspeakable experiences of real victims and then dismiss them as a fair price for some dubious greater good. This is a behavior and an attitude that our society needs to suppress, I believe, because it’s predictive of other self-centered, remorseless, power-blind attitudes—and we’re better off with fully general ethical injunctions against such. Not tolerating even the beginning steps of some potentially devastating paths is important enough to outweigh perfect epistemic detachment and pretensions to impartiality.
Christian moralism in its 19th century form—once a popular source for such injunctions—is rightly considered obsolete/bankrupt, but, like Orwell, I think our civilization needs a replacement for it. Or else our descendants might be the ones screaming “Why did it have to be rats?!” one day.
ZERO compromise. Not for the sake of politeness, not for the sake of pure reason, not a single more step to hell.
Yep, I admit there’s two arguments. My secondary line of attack is that there was nothing “necessary” about the things Pinochet did, and that in regards to the rule of law and sustainable democracy he wrecked what Allende was trying to create.
But my primary line is that some “rational” arguments should be simply censored when their advocates don’t even bother with hypotheticals but point to the unspeakable experiences of real victims and then dismiss them as a fair price for some dubious greater good. This is a behavior and an attitude that our society needs to suppress, I believe, because it’s predictive of other self-centered, remorseless, power-blind attitudes—and we’re better off with fully general ethical injunctions against such. Not tolerating even the beginning steps of some potentially devastating paths is important enough to outweigh perfect epistemic detachment and pretensions to impartiality.
Christian moralism in its 19th century form—once a popular source for such injunctions—is rightly considered obsolete/bankrupt, but, like Orwell, I think our civilization needs a replacement for it. Or else our descendants might be the ones screaming “Why did it have to be rats?!” one day.
ZERO compromise. Not for the sake of politeness, not for the sake of pure reason, not a single more step to hell.
I completely agree with you.