Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Drummond Diaries, Sept '72: Right vs. Wrong - In a society that has lost its values, "wrong" is no longer a concept but simply an expedient. By inference, "right" also has no place on any sort of value scale and cannot oppose "wrong" on any moral or ethical grounds; it is either no longer recognized, or is measured against some other standard. If it is no longer recognized, then to speak of "doing what's right," even if intended to prevent furthering a perceived wrong, is simply a functional myth, or maybe a functional expedient. And the problem with expedients is that they are not immovable baselines; they are conditioned by circumstance and politics. Nazi Germany was proof enough of that. 

So where does that leave a society that has lost its values? In a valueless society, is an act simply an act, devoid of meaning, like a stone in the woods falling on a colony of ants and killing them? Is economic expediency the only metric left? Or how about utilitarianism? "What is useful is right." Does anyone but me see the lightless tunnel at the end of that policy?

Therein lies the danger for a society that no longer has any values, or that doesn't recognize itself any more.

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