tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post2762768464636001775..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: Relative HarmAlonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-19345359902842927912007-05-03T16:18:00.000-06:002007-05-03T16:18:00.000-06:00This is off-topic, by I couldn't find a another me...This is off-topic, by I couldn't find a another means to ask you. How would you analyze this recent case? <BR/><BR/>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070426essay,0,5507193.story?coll=chi-news-hedAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-19228184016481903202007-05-01T10:24:00.000-06:002007-05-01T10:24:00.000-06:00Because you also live in Colorado, I am wondering ...Because you also live in Colorado, I am wondering if you saw the column by Paul Campos in the Rocky Mountain News, published almost the following day after the VTech shootings? He wrote on a similar topic, putting in proportion the deaths of Iraqis. And he got the reactions you predicted.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, on a rational level, we should not distinguish between the suffering of fellow Americans and fellow human beings. <BR/><BR/>One thing though that is in play here is how people relate to things. All of us have either been at a university or a high school in the United States, or have close friends and family in similar circumstances. We expect to be safe in those places and when something like this pierces our expectations we react. It is easier to have a more powerful empathy because we have more direct experiences with those circumstances, and with similar people.<BR/><BR/>What occurs in Iraq on a daily basis on the other hand is in accordance with our expectations.<BR/><BR/>Conversely we are much more able to put aside the suffering of people who we relate to less directly. Many people have not had the experiences to relate to people living in the world's most miserable locales.<BR/><BR/>However, I have for along time thought that our moral evolution is advanced by broadening the scope of people we relate to. And we must at least on a rational level think in terms of treating injustices to distant and near fellow humans as equal.Sheldonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03743116454273042629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-90436237129202050402007-05-01T06:09:00.000-06:002007-05-01T06:09:00.000-06:00Well written!Well written!The maidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01158682036840381823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-28847874121379309572007-05-01T02:14:00.000-06:002007-05-01T02:14:00.000-06:00Nice article and it sums up a lot of my own though...Nice article and it sums up a lot of my own thoughts about the Virginia Tech shootings.<BR/><BR/>The only real reasoning I have managed to fathom up about the vast differences in grief you have outlined is that tradegies that occur in western society (Virg Tech, 9/11 etc) people can more easily relate to being in that situation. Many people have gone to a similar university or worked in office blocks. Much like the London underground bombings it frightens people that such a thing could occur in modern society and when they see the pictures on the TV they can easily transfer themselves or a close relative/friend with the casulaties. Where as deaths in a war zone or in Darfur are so 'foreign' to peoples daily lifes it doesnt have the same impact.Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00901853618033139515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-6353150792874483192007-04-30T23:41:00.000-06:002007-04-30T23:41:00.000-06:00I go to Virginia Tech, and I was thinking the same...I go to Virginia Tech, and I was thinking the same thing when we got all that media coverage. Its one thing for students here to grieve more than for dead Iraqis or American soldiers - we have a special relation to the students who died. But it little sense for the national media to focus so much attention on the virginia tech shooting when the relation of 99% of their viewers to the students who died is simply that they were fellow Americans. Same for the 100x more troops who have died. The only reason for their focus on the Tech shootings, then, is novelty - I guess its the business of the media to be entertaining though. There seems to be something disrespectful about using these deaths for entertainment value, but its kind of hard for me to envision the media doing otherwise. They just need to be reminded to not ignore other deaths completely/ report them as lifeless statistics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-84461646851550527172007-04-30T23:26:00.000-06:002007-04-30T23:26:00.000-06:00Hi Alonzo,I totally agree with you. I posted about...Hi Alonzo,<BR/><BR/>I totally agree with you. I posted about a similar subject last year:<BR/><BR/>http://www.blacksunjournal.com/current-affairs/275_we-are-all-at-fault-for-sudan-carnage_2006.html<BR/><BR/>and got this response in my comments:<BR/><BR/>"You have it wrong that the whole world has some collective responsibility to do anything....A libertarian policy of non-intervention, which I support, only means the government should not get involved in situations not involving our national defense. Private individuals and groups should be free to take appropriate action....Sean, I nominate you to lead a squad of freedom fighters to Darfur."<BR/><BR/>In other words, the commenter is saying, like many comfortable Americans: "I'm not willing to include victims of genocide in my moral universe."BlackSunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15591731325290405256noreply@blogger.com