I am continually astonished at how weak the moral judgments of most Americans are. I’ve mentioned Thomas Jefferson’s library before here. At the time of his death it consisted of more than 6,000 volume. As mentioned in the linked post, a good chunk of those were devoted to morals and ethics. Clearly, Jefferson thought it was an important subject. That conviction does not seem to have filtered down to the present day.
It used to be the case that professional training, i.e. for doctors, lawyers, etc., required training in professional ethics. I know that my alma mater’s journalism school still requires a full year course in media law and ethics for graduation. A quick perusal of the course catalog for Harvard Law and the University of Chicago medical school finds the offerings on professional ethics meager indeed. I’m sure it’s touched on peripherally here and there.
My impression is that here in the United States we rely on what people learn at their mother’s knee (which, sadly, isn’t much these days since mom must work to provide for the family), what they’ve learned in the few weeks’ worth of Sunday school they might have attended, pick up on the streets, or learn from watching television. I suppose they could do worse than learning from Sesame Street or Fred Rogers. I shudder to think at what they’ve learned from Power Rangers.
A majority of Americans believe that the use of torture in fighting terrorism is acceptable. When they have the moral educations of seven year olds, we probably shouldn’t be surprised.
a “quick perusal” is oxymoronic. As the free dictionary says:
“Usage Note: Peruse has long meant “to read thoroughly” and is often used loosely when one could use the word read instead, as in The librarians checked to see which titles had been perused in the last month and which been left untouched. Seventy percent of the Usage Panel rejected this example in our 1999 survey. Sometimes people use it to mean “to glance over, skim,” as in I only had a moment to peruse the manual quickly, but this usage is widely considered an error. In a 1988 survey, 66 percent of the Panel found it unacceptable, and in 1999, 58 percent still rejected it.”
I think the first problem in gauging American opinion is that “torture” discussions are founded on a normative concept, not a description. If we don’t agree what “torture” is then aggregate views are not very meaningful. This poll shows a wide range of views on what “torture” is acceptable, presumably some of the items described as “torture” are rejected as such. From my perspective, what is defined as “torture” has expanded over the last several generations, as a result of evolving standards and emergence of alternatives. If you want to ask about views on spankings, don’t ask questions about child abuse. Perhaps the question should be when is rape justified?
The other observation about the poll Dave links to points to partisan baggage. Republicans are more likely to justify “torture,” than Democrats, but there is some suggestion in the polls that Republicans have become less supportive in the last few years and Democrats more.
Terrorists have given up any claim on human rights when they choose to murder innocent people. If they would like to have their rights restored, they can renounce being a terrorist.
I do not consider anything (in the report) that was done to the terrorists to be torture.
One must first define the concepts to develop the principles of one’s moral system, and then, one can use this system to measure actions and render an objective judgement.
Usually, a subjective judgement is rendered, and then, the moral principles are developed to fit the judgement. If a subsequent judgement contradicts a previous one, one or the other will be a special case, but they will both be deemed moral.
We have retarded seven year olds who argue that torture is morally wrong because it physically or psychologically injures somebody but that droning is morally right because it physically or psychologically injures somebody.
What is especially amusing is that many of those who do not have a clue of what the previous paragraph means believe they are my better in every way.
Well, TastyBits, many people feel that Amerikans gave up the right to be free from retaliatory attack when they gave the CIA license to participate in the killing and disappearance of tens of thousands of innocents throughout the Southern Cone in Operation Condor.