Philosophy time kids!
Personally, I haven't, but undoubtedly SOMEONE on these forums would have been confronted by a completely unfair situation caused by someone (Unfair Bastard), possibly said "That's not fair!", only to be struck back with the seemingly bulletproof counterpoint of "Life isn't fair.". I've been considering this for a while now, and I think I've found a way around it. Tell me what you think.
Life isn't fair. We see that everywhere- babies are born retarded, some people are born into upper-class families, some are born into poverty. Who's fault is that? Nobody's, that's how we know life just isn't fair. Consider this; if someone was blinded by a small stone chipped up from a tyre of a passing car, who's to blame? The driver for paying attention to the car in front instead of a little stone at the side of the road, or the victim for not seeing it coming and getting out the way?
Suppose the victim wants some justice. Fair enough, a wrong has been done that ought to be righted, surely. From whom is this justice extracted then? The driver did nothing wrong, so murder is ruled out. Culpable homicide (manslaughter)? It may seem avoidable now, with the benefit of hindsight, but at the time, it was entirely unavoidable, even if libertarianism is true. The driver has done absolutely nothing wrong, so it would be unreasonable to punish them; there would be no point, as there is no-one to blame, with the possible exception of God. So it's true, life really isn't fair, in the same way the victim could have been blinded at birth. I'm not trying to prove life is fair, I'm going to give you a perfectly reasonable comeback instead.
There are two routes one could take when dealing with U.B.. First, and most simple is to punch them in the face. After all, 'life isn't fair', there was nothing you could do about it in the same way there was 'nothing' U.B. could do about their unfairness. I can't in good conscience recommend that, as it's pretty shallow, unless you're happy with stooping to their level, in which case, go for it. Second, punch them in the face. Then kick them, steal their money, rape them... do literally whatever you want to them. After all, they're not human, they're just a H.S.O..
Babies, for the first thirty or so days after they're born are completely unaware. They have no spatial awareness, emotion, or any meaningful reasoning ability. That screaming little bundle of adorableness is not a human, it is a Human-Shaped Object. In the same way Just Dance appears to be a dancing sim, it's really not, a tumble drier could play it (read the reviews), it is just a Game-Shaped Object. So the term 'life isn't fair' applies to babies under a month old, as they are not rational autonomous agents, basically soft robots. People have the ability to think, that's what makes us better than the likes of weeks-old babies and the Sphex wasp. If a person is willing to degrade themselves to that level, they simply do not deserve their humanity. Moreover, they do not even desire it, they are afraid of the consequences, as with great power comes with responsibility*, the great power in this case being the libertarian/determinist definition of free will. And if they have no humanity, who's going to care if they are tortured? Not them anyway.
Alternatively, just calmly explain that to them, whatever.
*Oh God, I'm sorry, it's the best I could come up with.
Anyway, sorry for the TL;DR. I'd love to hear counterarguments if anyone's got any, or if anyone just wants to flex their philosophy muscle, or label me mentally unstable.
Personally, I haven't, but undoubtedly SOMEONE on these forums would have been confronted by a completely unfair situation caused by someone (Unfair Bastard), possibly said "That's not fair!", only to be struck back with the seemingly bulletproof counterpoint of "Life isn't fair.". I've been considering this for a while now, and I think I've found a way around it. Tell me what you think.
Life isn't fair. We see that everywhere- babies are born retarded, some people are born into upper-class families, some are born into poverty. Who's fault is that? Nobody's, that's how we know life just isn't fair. Consider this; if someone was blinded by a small stone chipped up from a tyre of a passing car, who's to blame? The driver for paying attention to the car in front instead of a little stone at the side of the road, or the victim for not seeing it coming and getting out the way?
Suppose the victim wants some justice. Fair enough, a wrong has been done that ought to be righted, surely. From whom is this justice extracted then? The driver did nothing wrong, so murder is ruled out. Culpable homicide (manslaughter)? It may seem avoidable now, with the benefit of hindsight, but at the time, it was entirely unavoidable, even if libertarianism is true. The driver has done absolutely nothing wrong, so it would be unreasonable to punish them; there would be no point, as there is no-one to blame, with the possible exception of God. So it's true, life really isn't fair, in the same way the victim could have been blinded at birth. I'm not trying to prove life is fair, I'm going to give you a perfectly reasonable comeback instead.
There are two routes one could take when dealing with U.B.. First, and most simple is to punch them in the face. After all, 'life isn't fair', there was nothing you could do about it in the same way there was 'nothing' U.B. could do about their unfairness. I can't in good conscience recommend that, as it's pretty shallow, unless you're happy with stooping to their level, in which case, go for it. Second, punch them in the face. Then kick them, steal their money, rape them... do literally whatever you want to them. After all, they're not human, they're just a H.S.O..
Babies, for the first thirty or so days after they're born are completely unaware. They have no spatial awareness, emotion, or any meaningful reasoning ability. That screaming little bundle of adorableness is not a human, it is a Human-Shaped Object. In the same way Just Dance appears to be a dancing sim, it's really not, a tumble drier could play it (read the reviews), it is just a Game-Shaped Object. So the term 'life isn't fair' applies to babies under a month old, as they are not rational autonomous agents, basically soft robots. People have the ability to think, that's what makes us better than the likes of weeks-old babies and the Sphex wasp. If a person is willing to degrade themselves to that level, they simply do not deserve their humanity. Moreover, they do not even desire it, they are afraid of the consequences, as with great power comes with responsibility*, the great power in this case being the libertarian/determinist definition of free will. And if they have no humanity, who's going to care if they are tortured? Not them anyway.
Alternatively, just calmly explain that to them, whatever.
*Oh God, I'm sorry, it's the best I could come up with.
Anyway, sorry for the TL;DR. I'd love to hear counterarguments if anyone's got any, or if anyone just wants to flex their philosophy muscle, or label me mentally unstable.
