| Lee Rigby killers - Guilty on 19:07 - Feb 26 by Gowerjack |
The voice of reason.
Thier crime is reprehensible and cannot be understood on condoned by any sane person, however those calling for the death penalty must realise this moral absolute.
Killing people is morally wrong.
It makes no difference if done by the state or an individual.
In addition our cultures more rational and civilized response to this crime illustrates the difference between our values and those of the culture and religion in which name these deeds were done. [Post edited 26 Feb 2014 19:10]
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"realise this moral absolute.
Killing people is morally wrong.
It makes no difference if done by the state or an individual."
I cannot agree with that, Gower. Absolute Morality posits the existence of a single, objective moral truth, irreducible. Surely circumstance can transmute the act of killing into the realm of Relative Morality? That moral judgement of the act itself is entirely subjective and beholden to context?
Let me give you the example that springs immediately to mind. My friend's father, sadly no longer with us, played an active part in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 during the course of which he killed six members of the Red Army. The final two as he made his escape into Austria, with the net rapidly closing, could have leapt straight from the pages of a Boys' Own adventure.
This is where the Absolutist argument falls down. He was by any reckoning a good man, and in the thirty years I knew him what I would unhesitatingly regard as a moral man. He was enirely satisfied that his actions were justified. Necessary. A view readily endorsed by all us boys who used to listen to his story with rapt enthusiasm.
You spoke in defence of our values and culture, Gower. Wouldn't you say he came forward and stood defiant for exactly that cause? The Kremlin held the country in its slavering maw. The red beast wasn't at the door he'd kicked it through and was on the rampage. To have acted differently would have been to take the path of betrayal. The greatest sin of all. |  |
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