Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

He writes like a hard-core Libertarian or some other type of self-described radical -- all blacks and whites and no greys in between. What about the "test"? Do we have any opinions we'd be afraid to express in front of our peers? If the answer's "no," then we're obviously conformists. Isn't fear of ostracism a conformist attitude? I guess because I absorbed Harlan Ellison's theory of being immune to emotional blackmail (shorter Ellison: Don't keep secrets.), I don't actually hold any opinions I wouldn't be afraid to express in at least some company. There are things I wouldn't say in front of some people, but that would be to avoid inflaming *their* prejudices and offending them. I'm not afraid of being ostracised; in fact, I'm rather used to it. (Besides which, if one is certain enough that the other side is factually wrong, or even just idiots, one can handle it.)

Secondly, you can't put a quantitative value like "mistake" on a relativistic construct like a "moral map." Morals are other-derived, culturally-determined, and inconstant. They're also, as Saussure said about language, arbitrary and conventional. Even large-scale 'moral failings' (although I'd even go so far as to argue that term's a misnomer) as the Holocaust can't really be termed "mistakes." The vocabulary's just inaccurate. (Then again, I'm amoral and function by ethics, so *all* morals seem arbitrary and relative to me.)

Well, I won't keep Fisking this one here. As they say over on Eschaton, smarter, less pretentious monkeys, please