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Flint · 12-12-2010, 09:11 PM

I'm not seeing this as cut and dried as Merc. One the one hand I have "my feelings" about it, and on the other: a black hole where something quantifiable should be, but isn't.

In the times we live in, the idea of monolithic news sources has evaporated. For the same reason that we don't buy sets of encyclopedias anymore--the monopoly on information has been cracked! WE ALL HAVE THE INFORMATION NOW. This is a condition that we regularly CELEBRATE, when we pause to consider how miraculous it is.

And now, what we have here is somebody taking information and, according to "my feelings" using it irresponsibly. I "feel" that one man has put himself forth as a kind of superpower, in a way that "feels" wrong--like the world shouldn't be that easy to throw off balance. I'm uncomfortable with an individual citizen having this much power--although if I were to "feel" differently about what he is doing, I would be CELEBRATING the power of the individual! . . . See the problem? This should be more quantifiable than whether we "feel" the individual is right or wrong, in his...motivations.

Is doing something for a bad reason enough to make it wrong to do, if, done for different reasons, it would have been okay?
Is doing something for a good reason enough to make it right to do, if, done for different reasons, it wouldn't have been okay?

It's a jumble of contradictory ideas that will not be so easy to sort out. Society will be FORCED to deal with this.

12-12-2010, 09:11 PM	#152
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	I'm not seeing this as cut and dried as Merc. One the one hand I have "my feelings" about it, and on the other: a black hole where something quantifiable should be, but isn't. In the times we live in, the idea of monolithic news sources has evaporated. For the same reason that we don't buy sets of encyclopedias anymore--the monopoly on information has been cracked! WE ALL HAVE THE INFORMATION NOW. This is a condition that we regularly CELEBRATE, when we pause to consider how miraculous it is. And now, what we have here is somebody taking information and, according to "my feelings" using it irresponsibly. I "feel" that one man has put himself forth as a kind of superpower, in a way that "feels" wrong--like the world shouldn't be that easy to throw off balance. I'm uncomfortable with an individual citizen having this much power--although if I were to "feel" differently about what he is doing, I would be CELEBRATING the power of the individual! . . . See the problem? This should be more quantifiable than whether we "feel" the individual is right or wrong, in his...motivations. Is doing something for a bad reason enough to make it wrong to do, if, done for different reasons, it would have been okay? Is doing something for a good reason enough to make it right to do, if, done for different reasons, it wouldn't have been okay? It's a jumble of contradictory ideas that will not be so easy to sort out. Society will be FORCED to deal with this. __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio** Last edited by Flint; 12-12-2010 at 09:27 PM.