[percy-l] "...problem is not moral relativism, shopping malls..."

Ken Armstrong armstron at ohiou.edu
Thu Mar 6 21:46:55 EST 2003



--On Thursday, March 06, 2003 6:24 PM -0500 Tpmonaghan at aol.com wrote:
> Let's show a little genuine charity to the shoppers. I realize shoppers
> are not postmodern, deconstructionists and not driven to a murderous rage
> by the Andalusian catastrophe and therefore not proper subjects for our
> compassion, but such charity should be easy enough out of laziness, if
> not virtue.

  So who was shortchanging the shoppers? It was shopping as salvation that 
was being scrutinized. Let us, whether or not out of laziness or sloppy 
thinking, not confuse the issue.

 Ken Armstrong
>From Tpmonaghan at aol.com  Thu Mar  6 22:15:33 2003
Return-Path: <Tpmonaghan at aol.com>
Delivered-To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from imo-d06.mx.aol.com (imo-d06.mx.aol.com [205.188.157.38])
	by happyhouse.metalab.unc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id D97A120040
	for <percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu,  6 Mar 2003 22:15:32 -0500 (EST)
Received: from Tpmonaghan at aol.com
	by imo-d06.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v34.21.) id 3.12c.24fdfc12 (4539)
	 for <percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 6 Mar 2003 22:16:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Tpmonaghan at aol.com
Message-ID: <12c.24fdfc12.2b99692b at aol.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 22:16:59 EST
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 28
Subject: [percy-l] can we truly understand the motivation of another
X-BeenThere: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
	<percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Id: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
	<percy-l.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l>,
	<mailto:percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l>
List-Post: <mailto:percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l>,
	<mailto:percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 03:15:33 -0000

Can we truly understand the motivation  of another?

No, probably not.

But we can perceive their action and we can respond to that.  We may respond 
wrongly, but we can see the act.  When Genghis Khan is attacking us or 
getting ready to, we are not bound to just dither.  Sorry about Genghis not 
having any toys when he was growing up, but if I sit back and allow him to 
vent his muderous rage, am I not actively at that point doing the murdering.  
Don't i owe it to him to fight, to try to stop him.  I am more than willing 
to suggest we go shopping, but what if he just doesn't want to shop?

Individual sentiments, particularly uninformed ones, may be dangerous, but we 
do have judgement, intellect and that we are duty bound to use.   We can use 
that gift.  Indeed, we are held responsible for using it.  Strapping a bomb 
on yourself, getting on a school bus, proceeding to the center, and blowing 
yourself up with all the kids is wrong.  People who pay for that kind of 
thing are off.  Auschwitz is wrong at all times and period.  The 
disagreements among us all are not just among God fearing folks, but with God 
hating folks, and God rebelling folks, and God fearing folks, and all fallen 
folks.  With fear and trembling we proceed.

I hope we all make it individually and corporately.  Guess I should add 
redundantly to that last sentence.  Anyway, peace.



More information about the Percy-L mailing list