Philosophy Now Forum

I often find myself contradicting my own thoughts and beliefs both in thought and in posts.

In a recent post i had put up called "Swami Beyondanada" I had found myself reffering to the principles of what is good and bad, and what is a moral lifestyle.

I found myself questioning whether or not that if (hypothetically) everyone lived under moral laws... would there be peace?

Morallity is not defined in one way of being. Morallity is based on life experiences, how we were taught and raised to know what is right and wrong. How can their ever possibly be peace with these principles that are clearly undefined as one way.

--If needed to reply to clearly understand my complication, please check the brief discussion titled Swami Beyondanada in the general discussions board--

-Love For Country.

I think this is pretty obvious. If the right punishment is provided proportionately to the crime and people are given proper and honest information, it should be very much possible. Cheers!

Thrasymachus was right

peace through superior firepower

-Imp

Fighting and "superior firepower" will never bring peace. If we were to just lay to waste every country that has issues with us then more countries would have issues with our brutallity and the demolishment of trade agreements that the countries had with said destroyed countries. The end result is everyone dying by our hands. This is not peace this is extermination.



We would also need to make changes so that criminals have no reason to commit crime. My thoughts on this are as follows: Nobody robs a bank just because they wake up one morning and decide "Hey! I want to rob a bank!" Usually criminals who rob, pilage, and plunder are down to their bottom dollar and have no other option (in their mind) but to rob a bank or steal money/items as a last result to survive.

So Proportionate punishment for crime would be excellent with proper and honest information. But also there would need to be opportunity for the bottom dollar individuals that feel they have no other option in life.

Its sad that peace revolves around money... but as they say, money and women are the root of all evil. (just playin ladies.) Money surrounds most criminal acts.

not extermination but law enforcement ...

everybody wants to rule the world

Only the dead have seen the end of war - Santayana

-Imp

ignorant as always...

Firepower, killing, and war, can never lead to peace. Have you ever seen first hand what goes on in the battlefield?

Have you seen the countless dead bodies of both our men and theirs?

Have you seen the families torn apart because of war?

"Anyone who truly wants go to war, Has truly never been there before." Larry Reeves.

War can never bring peace. This is coming from a former USMC operative.

Two things. One, we currently know of no strategy that will bring permanent peace. Two, somebody is always going to have the superior firepower. So, the question becomes, who do wish should be in that position?



The name of the game from here out is learning how to skillfully and surgically remove regimes that don't act peacefully in regards to their neighbors and own citizens. That is, criminal regimes.

If a murderous drug gang set up shop in our own neighborhood, and began terrorizing all our neighbors, what would we want the police to do? Whether local crime, or international crime, it's the same equation. Crime is crime.



The biggest crimes are committed by folks who are already rich.

Aren't you basically answering your own question here? You say morality is based on life experiences . Life experiences are different since everybody is an individual. My moral ideas clearly do not agree with the ones of the terrorist groups in the Middle-East. I think it is wrong murdering a person for having another religion. These extremist groups think it is acceptable to kill a person for having another religion.

In other words, we need to have the same moral ideas to agree upon an issue.

According to you morality is based on life experiences. Life experiences are all individual. Since it is impossible for us all to be the same, it is impossible to have the same moral ideas. Since we do not have the same moral ideas, it is impossible to obtain peace based on moral laws only.

But perhaps if it would be possible to change the moral views of the opposing sides, you will increase the possibility of negotiating. Changing the moral views of one might prove to be a difficult task though. Doing so would probably need a lot of compromises.

Then there is another issue. What is peace? If we manage to live next to each other, is that really peace. Is tolerating each other the same as living in peace?