Quote:
Originally Posted by maskedmelon
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Our conclusions don't really differ then and we agree on most of the points, other than anarchy being requisite for pruning. Though we may not really disagree on that either. You seem to suggest it is more of a betrayal of our political system than anything else and I think you point to it as anarchy because you favor an authoritarian government. It seems to me that a significant degree of coordination and denial of liberty inherent of a strongly authoritarian government could serve as an ample and perhaps superior substitute for the cruelty of nature.
I don't think socialist institutions are practical on a national scale with regards to a culturally amorphous society like the US. The rabid individualism embraced throughout the political spectrum in the US is an irreparable perversion of liberty promoted at the cost of community.
I find it interesting though that you consider it a uniquely human quality to sublimate reason for carnal impulse. I've considered the opposite to be true, i.e. man possesses the unique ability to deny his feelings. That is something I'll have to think on.
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Sublimating reason for carnal impulse is not characteristic of morality (if that's what you meant, if it's not this still bears on discussion). Morality is related in conscious processes involving learning, reflection, and aspiration. Man does possess a unique ability to deny his feelings, and this is a notion that has implications in the study of linguistics, where language for humans offers the singular character of not being environmentally or hormonally stimulated. But morality is not a hormonal manifestation, rather a quite conscious and reflective one, although there is an emotional element insofar as cognitions effect our emotional responses which in turn can shape unconscious moral decisions. Again, there is much literature on this, if you were interested.