[ SECRET POST #2781 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2781 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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08.
[Game of Thrones]


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09. [broken]


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10.
[Kevin Sorbo/Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]


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11.
[Transformers: Prime]


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12.
[Darkchylde]






Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 022 secrets from Secret Submission Post #397.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Unpopular opinions

[feotakahari]

I could probably come up with a complicated explanation of why they're different, but that would be dishonest to my intentions. My real, honest reason for even caring whether free will is real or not is that the idea of free will gives people more leeway to be bastards.

I realize that sounds a bit counterintuitive, but people who choose to be "good people" do so regardless of whether they think they're choosing freely or not. The concept of free will has more of an effect on whether self-proclaimed "good people" feel happy and comfortable doing awful things to "bad people"--it's a lot easier to hurt someone who "chose to be evil" than someone who's a product of his environment.

Re: Unpopular opinions

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think that's true at all. I think both things can be used to justify atrocious behavior one way or another. You get more moral condemnation if you think the target of your behavior chose to be the way they are. But you can get more aggressiveness and violence towards them if that's just who they are. If you're dealing with a criminal and you think it's absolutely impossible for them to decide to be anything other than a criminal, there is a sense in which that can justify harsh treatment, because there's no hope for redemption. And I think we've seen, in history, plenty of cases where people have justified massive atrocities on those grounds, where that has fed into the logic of massacre. "Members of [ethnic minority X] are evil inferior vermin and will always be evil inferior vermin and blood will out and so we must stamp them out." Or even to adopt totally inhumane measures with the justification that it's in the best interests of the class in question. The view can absolutely be used to justify awful ends.

I don't think either attitude is a moral panacea or basically right. I think the better alternative is to understand the complex blend of ways in which our environment and our choices intermingle. I think we need to look at things as they are. And I think part of the way to do that is taking account of free will, to the extent that it does exist. And I do think that the existence of free will is, to some extent, something which ought to give us hope, because it indicates the possibility of change.

Re: Unpopular opinions

[feotakahari]

This might just be semantics. The way I'd phrase it is that someone who's done bad things should be put in a situation, and given input, that will make them likely to change. In practice, that generally equates to more merciful treatment. You might phrase that in terms of making them want to change, and that would probably mean the same thing in practice.