An innovative post
I just listened to an old Noam Chomsky diatribe about innovation and why it is so important not to suppress innovation with laws. I can't believe he actually got paid to spout that crap!
Innovation that serves some higher purpose that is considered "good" is certainly worth supporting. Innovation that promotes "bad" is not necessarily worth supporting.
Those two crazies driving around in DC a few years ago had perfected an innovative way of killing innocent people...shooting thru a tiny hole in the trunk of a car. And who would have thought of locking a bomb around someone's neck and then having it self-detonate? Scott Peterson was also quite innovative in his disposal of his wife's body. I bet you know a lot of stories about bad innovations.
Innovation in an ethical vacuum is as likely to lead in a wrong direction as in a right one.
Some might see good in bad and bad in good. Some might believe that the attempt of scientists to cure cancer is a bad thing, as it would just increase the number of waste producing people on the planet or would somehow subvert natural selection. The Sierra Club might see any non-polluting action that rids us of waste producing and fossil fuel consuming humans as good, and some might say that society is to blame when a person feels so disenfranchised that he would shoot innocent people out of the trunk of a car, but I just see this type of innovation as being wrong. I can do this because I can use ethics to arrive at this conclusion. That ethics might have religious underpinnings does not disturb me.
Here is a phrase: Love thy neighbor. This does not refer to the kind of "neighborly love" we see on Desperate Housewives. This refers to seeing the other person as a person; caring about them; being of help or at least not being an enemy. How in the world can we look at the Middle East and not see the negative emotion towards Israel and Israelis? At what point in time did the Palestinians say, "Come in. Settle here! Be our neighbors and friends! We will make space for you! Boy, did you have it rough in Europe!! Let's share this land! I bet we can find a win-win solution here!" Instead, we have many innovative approaches to animosity and violence. Tossing a cripple off a cruise ship, hijacking airplanes, and suicide bombing are all really cool innovations, aren't they? And look at that crazy wall in Israel!
No, innovation is not good when it serves a bad master.
Innovation that serves some higher purpose that is considered "good" is certainly worth supporting. Innovation that promotes "bad" is not necessarily worth supporting.
Those two crazies driving around in DC a few years ago had perfected an innovative way of killing innocent people...shooting thru a tiny hole in the trunk of a car. And who would have thought of locking a bomb around someone's neck and then having it self-detonate? Scott Peterson was also quite innovative in his disposal of his wife's body. I bet you know a lot of stories about bad innovations.
Innovation in an ethical vacuum is as likely to lead in a wrong direction as in a right one.
Some might see good in bad and bad in good. Some might believe that the attempt of scientists to cure cancer is a bad thing, as it would just increase the number of waste producing people on the planet or would somehow subvert natural selection. The Sierra Club might see any non-polluting action that rids us of waste producing and fossil fuel consuming humans as good, and some might say that society is to blame when a person feels so disenfranchised that he would shoot innocent people out of the trunk of a car, but I just see this type of innovation as being wrong. I can do this because I can use ethics to arrive at this conclusion. That ethics might have religious underpinnings does not disturb me.
Here is a phrase: Love thy neighbor. This does not refer to the kind of "neighborly love" we see on Desperate Housewives. This refers to seeing the other person as a person; caring about them; being of help or at least not being an enemy. How in the world can we look at the Middle East and not see the negative emotion towards Israel and Israelis? At what point in time did the Palestinians say, "Come in. Settle here! Be our neighbors and friends! We will make space for you! Boy, did you have it rough in Europe!! Let's share this land! I bet we can find a win-win solution here!" Instead, we have many innovative approaches to animosity and violence. Tossing a cripple off a cruise ship, hijacking airplanes, and suicide bombing are all really cool innovations, aren't they? And look at that crazy wall in Israel!
No, innovation is not good when it serves a bad master.
posted by DocBrain at
5:45 AM
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