[ExI] Clark abstract

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Fri Jan 11 01:07:48 UTC 2008


Joshua writes

> Lee writes:
> 
>> Of course, this is *not* to say that we should ignore suffering---far
>> from it. But our conclusions should be based on a careful weighing
>> of costs and benefits, even statistics. It's better, for example, for a
>> very few children to starve to death than for millions to be destitute
>> and have no propects.  But to grok that last sentence, one needs to
>> really understand what "million" means, and most people, sadly,
>> don't have that ability in such a context.
> 
> I can't help wondering if the use of the word "very" as in "very few 
> children to starve..." was an unconscious bowing to the underlying 
> psychological mechanisms that encourage PC.

It was worse than unconscious bowing to those mechanisms---
it was conscious pandering to the soft-headed types who, bless
their sensitive hearts, cannot bring themselves to make certain
difficult choices. 

> To be more specific, perhaps people will save the few if they
> are described in more detail and with an eye to emotional
> response (for example, identifying them as children) rather 
> than help the "millions" who are less fully realized

Sadly, you are entirely correct.

Lee

> (millions of people? 
> Millions of old people who are about to die anyway...).




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