Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Sorry I can't spell worth beans, and I type worse...sentient is the word I was staggering after.
First, I don't worry about the needs or feeling of a lump of rock. I considerate it inanimate. We can quibble over a virus...
Bacteria and up are animate to me. With all the rights and privileges conferred to the class. I am just pointing out that I don't draw a distinction between a rosebush and a rattlesnake, other that safety-wise. They are all a collection of living cells. And killing one set of cells is the same to me as another set of cells...(Have I killed to eat? Yes. However, like the Mikado, I draw no distinction between the sentence and who executes it. I accept the responsibility for the dead cells in the store that I buy for food...)
Sentient (or self-aware - I can spell that better). Where you draw the line is open to debate. I don't consider it a sharp line either... But, for convienence (another tought word to spell for me), I limit it currently to humans, because the issue was to try to answer DM, as best I could. It doesn't mean I'm logical, or right. Just trying to explain the "basis" for my world view.
Slayda, the tool part is vital, from my perspective. Are you "civilized" by being a domestic animal? I may or may not be "civilized", but I am definitely NOT a domestic animal. And you treat me as such at your own risk! But a large group of people do think that other humans are just a fancier, far more tricky, domestic animal; to be used when necessary for controller's ends, and then let go to fend for themselves until needed again. Once again, this is not a sharp line, but a spectrum, from slavery to telemarketing. They may think is OK if they get caught and used, they were just not tricky enough to get control; or they make think it's their inalienable right to control. I think that being self-aware grants one the dignity of not being treated as a domestic animal. That decision, or sense of dignity's existence, is the core nub of politics. Which was what I was trying to describe to DM.
|
Well that you did ... My world view is just sooo very different from yours. Not saying one is better than the other ... just that they are really ... really ... different.