This is a perfect example of the evils spawned by ideologies that view equality of material outcome not as a means to alleviate suffering but as an end in itself. If I am a patient in Britains Soviet style centralised health machine. I am not allowed to top up the cost of my state subsidised health care with my own money to pay for additional treatments which the bureaucracy has been unable to fund.
The Department of Health said: “Co-payments would risk creating a two-tier health service and be in direct contravention with the principles and values of the NHS.”
In other words the Great Socialist God Egalitarius demands blood sacrifice.
This is worse than the idiotic screwups, bureaucratic incompetence and a lack of imagination that are par for the course with all state run enterprises.
This is suffering by design. The system deliberately pursues a policy that causes more people suffer needless pain and suffering, fully aware of the consequences.
Preventable suffering and death that could be alleviated at no additional cost to the state are deliberately allowed to continue, in order to ensure equality of outcome. I wonder if the patients thus denied treatments are happy that their suffering is serving a higher purpose.
I think the principles and values of the NHS are rotten to the core.
December 17, 2007
Evil enshrined as a moral principle.
Occasionally I am give stark and brutal reminders that all social as opposed to individual morality is normative. Any practice no matter how vile, can and will be endorsed by the group; human sacrifice, genocide, slavery, torture, systematic rape, genital mutilation, footbinding. If the larger cultural framework endorses these things the majority of people will not only go along with these practices but approve of them.
The world's moral progress has been a long and slow crawl from the gutter. Just as she has been responsible the lions share of the work in our material advancement., so the West has been the chief architect of our painfully slow ascent up the moral ladder. Central to all moral progress is the liberation of the individual from the coercion of his peers.
I am a moral empiricist.
I believe that just as the motion of planetary bodies exists independently of the decrees of with doctors, shamans and Popes so the irreducible moral importance of the "I", the self-awareness that resides in every person, exceeds the reach of bureaucrats theologians, dictators and local cultural mores. Its importance is immutable.
Outside of the west, no culture places the individual's freedom of choice and personal happiness at the top of the hierarchy of values. No multi-culti-all-cultures-are-equal bullshit will make this any less true.
The world's moral progress has been a long and slow crawl from the gutter. Just as she has been responsible the lions share of the work in our material advancement., so the West has been the chief architect of our painfully slow ascent up the moral ladder. Central to all moral progress is the liberation of the individual from the coercion of his peers.
I am a moral empiricist.
I believe that just as the motion of planetary bodies exists independently of the decrees of with doctors, shamans and Popes so the irreducible moral importance of the "I", the self-awareness that resides in every person, exceeds the reach of bureaucrats theologians, dictators and local cultural mores. Its importance is immutable.
Outside of the west, no culture places the individual's freedom of choice and personal happiness at the top of the hierarchy of values. No multi-culti-all-cultures-are-equal bullshit will make this any less true.
December 14, 2007
The moderately religious
A group of people I honestly don't understand are 'religious moderates' I fully realise that practically speaking religious moderation is preferable to religious fanaticism and that moderates pose far less of a threat to western civilisation than foaming at the mouth bearded, scimitar wavers. But I don't understand the religious moderates point of view. Mohammed, Jesus, Moses and all the rest make some pretty strong claims. I happen to think their claims are false so they and the tales of their exploits get filed on the ancient literature section of my bookshelf next to the stories of Zeus, Odin and Thor.
But if you think this stuff is true, it's pretty important stuff isn't it?
How the hell is it possible to believe that Moses WAS RIGHT when he slaughtered the Canaanites, Abraham WAS RIGHT when he offered to murder his son on the basis of his religious vision and then busily go about your life. If you believe this stuff not just true but the moral foundation of the entire universe shouldn't it color your behavior pretty dramatically? I just don't see how you can believe this stuff but take in your stride, go to church or the mosque every now and then but otherwise go about your way. If the claims in these books were actually true, it would be a pretty damn big deal.
But if you think this stuff is true, it's pretty important stuff isn't it?
How the hell is it possible to believe that Moses WAS RIGHT when he slaughtered the Canaanites, Abraham WAS RIGHT when he offered to murder his son on the basis of his religious vision and then busily go about your life. If you believe this stuff not just true but the moral foundation of the entire universe shouldn't it color your behavior pretty dramatically? I just don't see how you can believe this stuff but take in your stride, go to church or the mosque every now and then but otherwise go about your way. If the claims in these books were actually true, it would be a pretty damn big deal.
September 29, 2007
A Culture Of Meanness
First Published on my now defunct Random Acts of Thought blog on August 28 2005
Interestingly it predates the whole shilpah shetty on big Brother, racism brouhaha by quite a while.
Probably one of the biggest developments in television over the last 10 years has been the growth of reality TV.
MTVs Real World, was the grandaddy of reality TV shows. The basic premise was very simple by todays standards. A bunch of goodlooking teenagers are given a fully furnished apartment on the condition that their lives their are filmed and they discuss their experiences on camera. Looking back now the early real worlds look almost quaint.
Perhaps the most patently absurd claim is any correlation between reality and the ever more bizarre and outlandish scenarios into which these shows thrust their "heroes"
Far from being "reality" or unscripted these shows follow formats designed to bring up out very predictable outcome. The humiliation and embarassment of their contestants. Reality television is essentially pornographic.. And as in the case of pornography an increasingly jaded audience requires ever more graphic and vivid thrills. The contestants must be made ever more uncomfortable, the embarassment must be made more accute. And like a lot of pornography it is fundamentally about power dynamics and little else.
Reality TV is not "reality" anymore than hardcore pornography is a full reflection of human sexuality but a crude caricature that debases those who produce and those who consume it.
These shows are fueled almost entirely by negativity. They demean those who take part and those who are titillated by them. Ostensibly shedding light on human nature they are instead designed to bring out the very worst in both their participants and their audience.
Adults should try to be better. Adulthood as a social not just biological reality is very important, and I sometimes worry that we are losing that. Adulthood entails moral as well as finanical responsibilities...
How can a parent teach children respect for other people, when they consume "entertainment"
whos main purpose is to humiliate and tear down other people, and to violate their dignity?
To me Jackass is the bottom of the line... Approaprately its an MTV show the same channel that gave birth to the reality TV genre in the first place.
Jackass is about watching someone getting physically hurt, fired at with Taser guns, walloped with hockey pucks and made to participate in ever more bizarre and painful stunts.
Often it is followed by closeup of the bruises he has aquired doing these stunts as if to verify the authenticity of the pain he is inflicting on himself for other peoples amusement. Again the parallel to the porn industry jumps out at me. I
I really dont know where it will end....
I think the envelope of decency will keep getting pushed until it breaks.
The TV station will misjudge their contestants capacity for mental or physical abuse and someone will seriously harm themselves or another person
Everyone who watches this stuff will be to blame.
Interestingly it predates the whole shilpah shetty on big Brother, racism brouhaha by quite a while.
Probably one of the biggest developments in television over the last 10 years has been the growth of reality TV.
MTVs Real World, was the grandaddy of reality TV shows. The basic premise was very simple by todays standards. A bunch of goodlooking teenagers are given a fully furnished apartment on the condition that their lives their are filmed and they discuss their experiences on camera. Looking back now the early real worlds look almost quaint.
Perhaps the most patently absurd claim is any correlation between reality and the ever more bizarre and outlandish scenarios into which these shows thrust their "heroes"
Far from being "reality" or unscripted these shows follow formats designed to bring up out very predictable outcome. The humiliation and embarassment of their contestants. Reality television is essentially pornographic.. And as in the case of pornography an increasingly jaded audience requires ever more graphic and vivid thrills. The contestants must be made ever more uncomfortable, the embarassment must be made more accute. And like a lot of pornography it is fundamentally about power dynamics and little else.
Reality TV is not "reality" anymore than hardcore pornography is a full reflection of human sexuality but a crude caricature that debases those who produce and those who consume it.
These shows are fueled almost entirely by negativity. They demean those who take part and those who are titillated by them. Ostensibly shedding light on human nature they are instead designed to bring out the very worst in both their participants and their audience.
Adults should try to be better. Adulthood as a social not just biological reality is very important, and I sometimes worry that we are losing that. Adulthood entails moral as well as finanical responsibilities...
How can a parent teach children respect for other people, when they consume "entertainment"
whos main purpose is to humiliate and tear down other people, and to violate their dignity?
To me Jackass is the bottom of the line... Approaprately its an MTV show the same channel that gave birth to the reality TV genre in the first place.
Jackass is about watching someone getting physically hurt, fired at with Taser guns, walloped with hockey pucks and made to participate in ever more bizarre and painful stunts.
Often it is followed by closeup of the bruises he has aquired doing these stunts as if to verify the authenticity of the pain he is inflicting on himself for other peoples amusement. Again the parallel to the porn industry jumps out at me. I
I really dont know where it will end....
I think the envelope of decency will keep getting pushed until it breaks.
The TV station will misjudge their contestants capacity for mental or physical abuse and someone will seriously harm themselves or another person
Everyone who watches this stuff will be to blame.
A Curious Role Reversal
First published on my now defunct blog Random Acts of Thought
on October 13 2005 in a slightly different form
I was thinking yesterday about how ironic it is that conservatives and liberals in the United States, switch roles on the evolution vs creationism debate.
Conservatives who mostly believe in the creative power of free markets unfettered by topdown government control are often utterly unable to apply this thinking to the evolution vs inteligent design/creationism debate... suddenly structure and order are inconceivable without the existence of a benevolent central planner.
Similarly liberal who snub their noses at anything so crass and unsophisticated as a personal god making design decisions from his government office in the sky, become convinced that just such a figure is necessary to produce a "community"
It seems to me that Charles Darwin and Adam Smith go hand in hand. Both explain how competition creates order even in the absence of design. If you understand The Origin of Species you ought to be able to grasp The Wealth of Nations. Natural selection and the hidden hand of the marketplace are two aspects of the same phenomenon
on October 13 2005 in a slightly different form
I was thinking yesterday about how ironic it is that conservatives and liberals in the United States, switch roles on the evolution vs creationism debate.
Conservatives who mostly believe in the creative power of free markets unfettered by topdown government control are often utterly unable to apply this thinking to the evolution vs inteligent design/creationism debate... suddenly structure and order are inconceivable without the existence of a benevolent central planner.
Similarly liberal who snub their noses at anything so crass and unsophisticated as a personal god making design decisions from his government office in the sky, become convinced that just such a figure is necessary to produce a "community"
It seems to me that Charles Darwin and Adam Smith go hand in hand. Both explain how competition creates order even in the absence of design. If you understand The Origin of Species you ought to be able to grasp The Wealth of Nations. Natural selection and the hidden hand of the marketplace are two aspects of the same phenomenon
A great article on reason points out four biases that seem hardwired into human beings and ensure that democratic societies pursue collectively irrational courses of action. Required reading!
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