Mike Marlow wrote:
SNIP

Of course it's not that simple. There's long-term vs short-term
survival, the importance attached to a stasble society, etc.. But the
basic rule is there.

That rule doesn't stand up to widely varying cultural values for even a
second. Gonna need to come up with a different rule.


In what way doesn't it stand up? You make a flat statement without even
a smidgin of proof or a single example.



It's an easy statement to make Charlie. Not all cultures value the same
things. There is no consistent definition of what is good for the survival
of the species. The values across cultures can be extremely different.


Correct. Moreover, historically the definition of "good" has be variable
enough to the point where it enabled tribal murder, cannibalism, genocide,
and all other manner of alleged "survival behaviors". The only
policy for bounding public collective action that has consistently
demonstrated its ability to both promote long-term societal survival
AND minimized offense to individuals has been the rule I cited a while
back in this thread: We act collectively only to promote/preserve
personal liberty. Everything else is a private matter.

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Tim Daneliuk
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