Quote:
Originally Posted by angus58
Your statement that an entire nation is responsible for the evil actions of their rulers/government etc, is ridiculous- MOST German people were unaware of what Hitler's regime was doing to the Jews, Gays, Disabled etc, and were under the jackboot of the nazis who ruled by fear and intimidation. I, for example, am no more responsible for the evil actions of this government for taking us into an illegal war in Iraq than you are. If you think we are not already living under a form of dictatorship you are deluding yourself. What you appear to be suggesting is that if it was suddenly legal in this country, for example, to pick on and intimidate a particular ethnic minority, everybody would be doing it. Again, you are presupposing that human beings are mindless automatons incapable of acting morally or ethically unless there is legislation in place telling them what is right or wrong. I submit the majority
of human beings are perfectly aware of what is moral and ethical behaviour, and those that choose to step outside the boundaries of that behaviour cannot then complain about the consequences.
The ordinary citizen in this country has had Human Rights legislation imposed upon them which is unworkable in practice since to invoke one's individual rights often infringes upon and offends someone else's, so whose takes precedence?
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It sounds like you've taken a very naive worldview. The final solution wasn't a closely guarded secret in Germany. It was happening under the Germans' noses and it is often human nature to deceive ourselves and justify the most awful things, so not only did the Germans share the moral responsibility of the actions of their leadership, they were doing what any other country would have done in the same situation. Society is always going to fall prey to evil if there are no laws to teach people otherwise. I urge you to take a long hard look at our history if you think human beings are naturally good. A law can only mean something if we can apply it to everybody including ourselves. It is thus with taking the life of another human being. You have to ask yourself that if a truly dangerous, malicious and evil individual were locked away from society, how does revenge make any sense? I can tell you what doesn't make sense. For a society to tell a criminal 'don't do as I do, do as I say'.
I'm sorry to hear you think human rights laws are unworkable in practice. Could you elaborate further on why you think some people's human rights are invasive of others? I can't say I agree.