Humanity will never completely agree on the finer points of human interaction but certainly on the larger and more harmful points. As long as people do not try to enforce the minutia of their own moral ways of interaction we'll get along just fine.
A while ago this topic discussion reminded me of a phrase from the founding fathers of America, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." That phrase says it all. Humanity has woken up looked around and watched themselves and noticed, "Hey when A happens B happens and it's not good." When someone is violated and harmed bad consequences happen and I'm not talking about the harm of someone being insulted by a bad word or disgusted at someone's unusual sex life I'm talking about serious physical and/or emotional pain.
Regarding children: It is universally accepted that children can not make informed decisions. They are granted a little bit of decision making power in their late teens but not much and certainly not like 200 years ago when they would be parents themselves at that age more often than not. Our modern society has worked hard to keep their children as dependant as possible psychologically perhaps because the life span is so much longer now and don't have to encounter that much responsibility so soon. Therefore any ideas about a child making an informed sexual choice or to let themselves be physically harmed is beyond ridiculous and of course it would be harmful to them and their developing psyche.
It takes finesse and hard work to get along with each other in the day to day span and sometimes people simply must avoid each other and that's just the way it's going to be. But everyone has a rule of "Do not intentionally harm me!" and yes that includes someone who likes to feel physical pain; even they have their limits.
I think it would be less confusing if we used something other than "morals" to describe this regulating process. The word "morals" has so much history and connotation of being attached to a select few authority figures. Call it self-preservation perhaps. The "self" being all humanity.
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Date: 2007-06-26 02:33 pm (UTC)A while ago this topic discussion reminded me of a phrase from the founding fathers of America, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." That phrase says it all. Humanity has woken up looked around and watched themselves and noticed, "Hey when A happens B happens and it's not good." When someone is violated and harmed bad consequences happen and I'm not talking about the harm of someone being insulted by a bad word or disgusted at someone's unusual sex life I'm talking about serious physical and/or emotional pain.
Regarding children: It is universally accepted that children can not make informed decisions. They are granted a little bit of decision making power in their late teens but not much and certainly not like 200 years ago when they would be parents themselves at that age more often than not. Our modern society has worked hard to keep their children as dependant as possible psychologically perhaps because the life span is so much longer now and don't have to encounter that much responsibility so soon. Therefore any ideas about a child making an informed sexual choice or to let themselves be physically harmed is beyond ridiculous and of course it would be harmful to them and their developing psyche.
It takes finesse and hard work to get along with each other in the day to day span and sometimes people simply must avoid each other and that's just the way it's going to be. But everyone has a rule of "Do not intentionally harm me!" and yes that includes someone who likes to feel physical pain; even they have their limits.
I think it would be less confusing if we used something other than "morals" to describe this regulating process. The word "morals" has so much history and connotation of being attached to a select few authority figures. Call it self-preservation perhaps. The "self" being all humanity.