If they tell y8u that they hate being forced into a particular role, you’re going to tell them that their feelings don’t matter, because you can prove logically that it is non voluntary, and that you can’t rebel against your identity?
Suppose someone hates being short. Being short is mostly involuntary; the primary thing that is voluntary is how they react to being short. Historically, philosophical advice has been of the variety “deal with it; it’s better to be short and untroubled than short and troubled.” Being short and identifying as being tall, insisting on being tall, or resenting not being tall, are all opposed to reality.
The best liberal response, I think, is to note that “being short” has both a physical reality (how long your body is) and a social reality (how others react to the length of your body), and that the social reality is mutable. In a modern, industralized society, the economic use of height is very narrow, and we could adjust the social reality to match the current physical reality.
The worst liberal response, I think, is to claim that “being short” is just a social reality, that the social reality is completely mutable, and that short people have been oppressed by tall people, and we need to work against that oppression.
Liberal democracies, by contrast, are so good at reaping the benefits of progress that, they are able attract queues of would be immigrants from more traditional societies.
I am under the impression that, proportional to the relevant populations, there are more American expats in Singapore than Singaporean expats in America. (There might actually be more in absolute numbers, but I’m having difficulty getting that number.)
The compromise approach, the best liberal morality, is a nice theoretical solution, but that him does it work in practice? In practice, people have a right, or they don’t.
I am under the impression that, proportional to the relevant populations, there are more American expats in Singapore than Singaporean expats in American.
The important point would be whether they are there for so many years, or whether they have torn up their passports.
Suppose someone hates being short. Being short is mostly involuntary; the primary thing that is voluntary is how they react to being short. Historically, philosophical advice has been of the variety “deal with it; it’s better to be short and untroubled than short and troubled.” Being short and identifying as being tall, insisting on being tall, or resenting not being tall, are all opposed to reality.
The best liberal response, I think, is to note that “being short” has both a physical reality (how long your body is) and a social reality (how others react to the length of your body), and that the social reality is mutable. In a modern, industralized society, the economic use of height is very narrow, and we could adjust the social reality to match the current physical reality.
The worst liberal response, I think, is to claim that “being short” is just a social reality, that the social reality is completely mutable, and that short people have been oppressed by tall people, and we need to work against that oppression.
I am under the impression that, proportional to the relevant populations, there are more American expats in Singapore than Singaporean expats in America. (There might actually be more in absolute numbers, but I’m having difficulty getting that number.)
The compromise approach, the best liberal morality, is a nice theoretical solution, but that him does it work in practice? In practice, people have a right, or they don’t.
The important point would be whether they are there for so many years, or whether they have torn up their passports.