Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
"Knowing right from wrong" is a variable, dependent upon time and place.
Consider the "Nigerian 419" scams. A friend was involved in international education and had students from Africa who said "You can't trust anyone from Nigeria". The issue seemed to be tribalism. In most of Africa, the tribe is the most important social unit. You are part of a family, families aggregate into clans, and clans are parts of tribes.
In situations like that, you can get morality which divides people into "us" and "them", where "they" are "not my family/clan/tribe", and a different set of rules apply. From the Nigerian 419 scammer's viewpoint, what they are doing isn't wrong, because the folks they are scamming aren't their people.
You can see it here, too, in detestable cases of "They aren't our kind, so normal rules don't apply". There was an uproar a while back when a major midwestern meat packing company owned and operated by Hasidic Jews was raided by the government, and shut down for violations of things like child labor laws. (Management was employing Hispanic illegal immigrants at less than minimum wage, including kids, because they were illegal and couldn't complain.)
A friend was a nurse with a Hasidic quadriplegic woman as a patient. Her patient was outraged when she heard the news. "How dare they call themselves Jews! How dare they call themselves Hasids!" I didn't blame her a bit, as such behavior is quite contrary to what I know of Judaism and the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. But it can happen in cultures which assume that they are somehow special and apart from the rest of mankind. You get an implicit assumption that others aren't quite human, and you don't need to follow the same rules in dealing with them as you do with your own.
For an example of the effects on culture of harsh environments, look up the Ik people in what is currently Uganda in Africa. They are considered among the bottom 5% of the most impoverished people in the world, and the effects on their culture have been profound.
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Dennis
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But deeming other as inhuman, thus being outside of moral or ethical consideration, isn't that just another form of (belief in) universality?
I think, what I'm arguing is a somewhat different perspective: namely that discusions of ethics is generally something left to those who have a surplus life.
Others don't have the luxury.
About the 419 nigeria scammers. What do you think of the westerners who for the fun (and they justify themselves by saving other victims by taking up the nigerian scammers time) make these scammers go through hell (with outlandish stories, that really shows how much the nigerian scammers want the money)? They probably wouldn't scam if they were in our position, right.