- Joined
- Jan 12, 2005
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- New Mexico
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- Independent
I don't really attribute these types of acts to "evil" as much as I do to mental illness, and I don't really think it's fair to compare the politically correct crowd with Hitler. The PC crowd just doesn't seem to understand the way real life works.
I didn't compare them with Hitler or anybody else. I used as illustration a number of examples of people who believed they were doing the right thing when in fact they were doing evil. One can be a paragon of virtue and still be so wrong in his/her actions that the result is evil. In my opinion those who think they are doing good by acting as thought police are doing evil.
“Causing any damage or harm to one party in order to help another party is not justice, . . . "--― Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
“To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.” ― Friedrich Hayek
“No one can take away your Natural Rights, but they can do great damage making you think they can.”― J.S.B. Morse
And a friend who has been reading along here but does not post just e-mailed me this (emphasis mine):
“The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty