Does morality have a place in politics?

[Magic Poriferan]

Originally Posted by murkrow

Justify(lol) this statement, please.

Last time I checked, I'm not Synarch (though that was two days ago, and things might have changed) but allow me to hazard a response.

It is very hard to maintain social order without some concept of justice. Justice is bound to norms, and norms are enforced through what we call justice. It is a maintainer of norms, particularly in terms of dealing with what we consider violations of vital norms, i.e. mores. In other words, our norms outline how justice is to be served, and what is just, and then the service of justice keeps people in line with those norms.

If there were no norms, it would be a state of chaos that no society could exist in. Even selfish totalitarians want their people to have a sense of justice (the skilled ones will define justice themselves as much as possible). It's much easier to manage than a group of people with no values.

[Take Five]

Morality does and should play into politics. In democracies, the government has the responsibility to provide security and protection to citizens, and since the citizens choose their officials, people have a moral obligation to choose leaders to this end, should they choose to involve themselves.

[abra]

Originally Posted by Magic Poriferan

Last time I checked, I'm not Synarch (though that was two days ago, and things might have changed) but allow me to hazard a response.

It is very hard to maintain social order without some concept of justice. Justice is bound to norms, and norms are enforced through what we call justice. It is a maintainer of norms, particularly in terms of dealing with what we consider violations of vital norms, i.e. mores. In other words, our norms outline how justice is to be served, and what is just, and then the service of justice keeps people in line with those norms.

If there were no norms, it would be a state of chaos that no society could exist in. Even selfish totalitarians want their people to have a sense of justice (the skilled ones will define justice themselves as much as possible). It's much easier to manage than a group of people with no values.

The norms exist independent of justice, correct?

Could justice theoretically exist independent of politics?
I think so.

A definition of politics is necessary at this point.

I am referring specifically to the political structure of a state when I mention politics, but all the systems that connect human beings could be called political.

Can someone provide a working definition?

[Valuable_Money]

Here is my view of the two spectrums of polotics.

The right wing "Vote for us and that makes you a good person, much better than those lefties."

The left wing "vote for us and that makes you a smart person, much smarter than those righties."


Its the same mindless sheep that follow each party, the only difference is what apeals to them. So the real question is, Would you rather have everyone think you were a moraly upright person or everyone think your soooo smart.

This is just a generalization(of course both sides like to also say that they are smart/moral), of course, but its just a little somthing I noticed.



Also if you listen to news reports replace expert with high preist for some hilarious results.

"We have with us today, Samual Ruth, an expert in agriculture."

"We have with us today, Samual Ruth, high priest of agriculture."


Also Its my opinion that the republicans lost because they decided to take their social agenda down with them on the sinking ship that was their outdated economic policies. Im more of a moderateIndecisive loser so I dont really agree with there social policies but I also dont agree with Democratic ones either, and the fact that people are suggesting that they should dump their social policies but keep their economic ones send this message to me "I dont care what they do with our money but the fact that they disagree with me on <subject of moral/social debate> really bugs me, I mean the fact that they lost the election proves that they are wrong and that I am right!"

Its very strange how now that Democrats are in power theyve adopted alot of the high and mighty attitudes that killed the republicans. I almost busted out laughing when a woman called in to CNN C-Span(one of those news channels thats up in the 200s) and said that she thought people should obey our commander in chief(Obama)

So in conclusion both parties are full of idiots and were all fucked until a decent third party comes into power(lol never)

</mithanthropic rant>