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