Kindness and Realism
As a matter of principle I reject any cause that doesn't explain what it tries to achieve and how. There are two ways how kindness can be abused:
- by suppressing caution (cf. the spider daimon) and
- by translating it into a title that provides special rights.
Instead of pursuing this further through the imposed lens of kindness, let me point to the heart of the matter as I see it: There's the implicit agreement in British society that fools should pay for their folly, for that will help them wisen up.
Whether that is a clever idea or not entirely depends on the circumstances. It is certainly not a good idea, when you allow an institution to fool you in the national interest and leave oversight over it in the hands of people with questionable loyalties.
In other words, so called tough love can only be a good thing, as long as those applying it possess some desirable quality to which they help those receiving it in the process.
But when ostracising so called crazies, you better check your own sanity first, so as not to find yourself on the wrong side of the sanity divide cutting yourself off from it.
Or, differently put, when in doubt about the possession of some desirable quality, change your perspective and find a way in kindness to make it easier for imperfect beings to acquire it. And as far as 9/11 is concerned, this would be easy enough, you may for instance build a 1:10 scale model and see what happens when airplanes fly into it (if only after a special permission to use asbestos).
This is however not an individual responsibility, but one of whatever organised group could make good on its commitment. In my opinion 5040 organised families, as Plato suggests, should suffice: Would there be uncertainty among such groups about some catastrophe, they would have long made the necessary investigations to overcome it looking back at it 25 years later. And only on this basis can we even begin to tackle security concerns, making up for lacking common self-restraint.
Even so, there would be considerations leading people away from their sovereignty, but it would be possible to defend it, understanding that losing it endangered all, for it replaces human agency with system dynamics.
Labels: 43, formalisierung, gesellschaftsentwurf, gesetze, institutionen, rezension, sehhilfen, wahrnehmungen, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία

