How universal are the human values of freedom & rights, anyway? & can or should there be universal human values? & how do we even begin to think about how we should think about such questions, &...
Pondering enlightment for/of universal human values? -- especially <individual> freedom & rights?
The movie "A Few Good Men" comes to mind.
Defense of Dawson and Downey, accused of murder and facing court-martial, leads to the testimony of Colonel Nathan Jessep(played by Jack Nicholson). Questioning contradictions in Jessep's testimony, defense attorney Kaffee (Tom Cruise) asks for the truth. Jessep upholding the military's and his own importance to national security-- shouts-- "Truth? You can't handle the truth!"
Jessep is arrested before he can leave the court room.
Dawson and Downey are cleared of murder but found guilty of "conduct unbecoming" and will be dishonorably discharged
Downey doesn't get it and want to know what they did wrong? Dawson explains they failed to protect those too weak to propect themselves.
Kaffee, tells Dawson he doesn't need a patch on his sholder to have honor.
I think related to your musings, and you may have seen this already, in today's post Bret Devereaux references his article in Foreign Policy on the value of studying history:
"I wrote recently in Foreign Policy about how “The History Crisis Is a National Security Problem,” noting how U.S. security relies on a steady supply of historians to various parts of the Departments of Defense and State as well as an educated citizenry prepared to understand the questions being put to them in elections (as noted above!). It is my hope that an article like this might also serve as a model for other historians to use when reaching out to the policy communities connected to their fields – to explain that history education in the United States is in distress and to connect that to the issues policy-makers (with funding dollars) care about."
Rights? Feh. Until the 18th century, "rights" only meant that wealth and political power could be somewhat disentangled. (Unlike Imperial Rome!) If you had neither, you had no rights that anybody was obligated to respect.
And even today, most rights for most people are nugatory without the wealth or power to enforce them. (The right to property--which is very strong--means nothing without property.) I don't care what the First Amendment says. Any person with a job had better hold their tongue--even academics, nowadays. And any person with a cellphone camera had better be careful about using it near a cop.
I guess I'm grumpy on this topic. For I practiced too much law, too long.
Pondering enlightment for/of universal human values? -- especially <individual> freedom & rights?
The movie "A Few Good Men" comes to mind.
Defense of Dawson and Downey, accused of murder and facing court-martial, leads to the testimony of Colonel Nathan Jessep(played by Jack Nicholson). Questioning contradictions in Jessep's testimony, defense attorney Kaffee (Tom Cruise) asks for the truth. Jessep upholding the military's and his own importance to national security-- shouts-- "Truth? You can't handle the truth!"
Jessep is arrested before he can leave the court room.
Dawson and Downey are cleared of murder but found guilty of "conduct unbecoming" and will be dishonorably discharged
Downey doesn't get it and want to know what they did wrong? Dawson explains they failed to protect those too weak to propect themselves.
Kaffee, tells Dawson he doesn't need a patch on his sholder to have honor.
Demi Moore, looks hot in uniform
I think related to your musings, and you may have seen this already, in today's post Bret Devereaux references his article in Foreign Policy on the value of studying history:
"I wrote recently in Foreign Policy about how “The History Crisis Is a National Security Problem,” noting how U.S. security relies on a steady supply of historians to various parts of the Departments of Defense and State as well as an educated citizenry prepared to understand the questions being put to them in elections (as noted above!). It is my hope that an article like this might also serve as a model for other historians to use when reaching out to the policy communities connected to their fields – to explain that history education in the United States is in distress and to connect that to the issues policy-makers (with funding dollars) care about."
Rights? Feh. Until the 18th century, "rights" only meant that wealth and political power could be somewhat disentangled. (Unlike Imperial Rome!) If you had neither, you had no rights that anybody was obligated to respect.
And even today, most rights for most people are nugatory without the wealth or power to enforce them. (The right to property--which is very strong--means nothing without property.) I don't care what the First Amendment says. Any person with a job had better hold their tongue--even academics, nowadays. And any person with a cellphone camera had better be careful about using it near a cop.
I guess I'm grumpy on this topic. For I practiced too much law, too long.