Virtuous Theft or Murder

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RWStanding
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Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:23 pm

Virtuous Theft or Murder

Post by RWStanding »

Virtuous Theft or Murder
In normal society the idea of virtuous theft or murder is absurd, assuming legislation is appropriate for the society. Improvement in law may be required. Murder is so named for killing that is unacceptable and for altruist society malice would figure in the legal definition. Such crimes being productive of social Chaos.
But that leaves open two possibilities.
The first is where the definition and law fails society. As for Victor Hugo's character Jean Valjean, reduced to stealing bread although not indeed murder. Altruist society that allows anyone within it to starve, who is willing to be helped, is committing a moral crime for that form of society. As is permitting unemployment where there is willingness to work - industry is there for the people and not people for industry. A social conflict has been created in which a man whose family is starving, not merely hungry, must balance the evil of extreme neglect against that of purloining aid where there is plenty. Jean Valjean was however slightly confused about his responsibilities, just to muddy the picture.
The second is where a society is in flux and one basic form of society is giving way to another. Tyranny to something more altruistic perchance. The dilemma of a well known priest in Germany during WW2. Even the civil war in England when monarchy may have given way to democracy had there been the wit and will. In which case both sides were right according to their social perspectives.
A problem for most societies, countries or states, that exist, is that they are entirely uncertain about what they are or where they should be heading. The UK has an uncomfortable mixture of altruism, authoritarianism, and anomie - not to be pedantic.
But Valjean was not in fact in an altruist society by any intent, except that of some priests and philosophers. His was in a poorly run tyranny. If it had been anarchistic in form, nobody would have cared, and he might have been sent to the gallies - as he was. It may again be remarked that empathy relates to altruist society more than to other end-value societies, and so does the logic of cooperation without empathy.
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