Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!orion!houca!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!iuvax!isrnix!tim
From: tim@isrnix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: limited laws and government
Message-ID: <248@isrnix.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Jun-83 14:14:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: isrnix.248
Posted: Wed Jun 22 14:14:56 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jun-83 20:45:17 EDT
References: houti.304
Lines: 25

The primary moral value is NOT to preserve an individual life-it is
to preserve the life of the species as a whole! Our own individual
lives are limited to our own morality -the life of the human species
hopefully can go on for many,many centuries unless we destroy
ourselves.  If a mother and her child face the threat of death, which
will the mother choose, her own death or her child's death?  Most
mothers will probably choose their own death-the child will live to
carry on the species.  Is this "irrational" as Ayn Rand would have it?
NO! It is only rational that by loving and caring for each other,by
caring for something beyond our individual selves that the human
race has prospered and survived.  That is why cultures have honored
heroes who were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend their
fellows-the Marathon messengers who carried the warning of the
Persian invasion for 23 miles and then died, those who died at the
pass at Thermopylae to give their fellow country-persons time to
reach safety, there are many such sagas throughout history.
And what is "rationality" to be the supreme value anyway? "Rationality"
merely means choosing the best means to attain certain ends. Who can
define those ends? They cannot be defined by "rationality"-is Love
rational? Undoubtedly not but many people find it a very important
end.  But it is doubtful whether anyone who only values themselves
or the preservation of their own life above all others could ever
understand what love really means.
     Tim Sevener
     decvax|pur-ee!iuvax!isrnix!tim