“ This is obviously and offensively wrong. Does the risk of robbery improve living conditions? Does the risk of death improve life? Also, a future society where consent is optional appears to be a terrible dystopia: assuming a free democratic government, lack of consent implies that advertisers and corporations could force consumers to buy things. This quote needs A LOT of additional justification and qualification (and ideally deletion) to avoid implying that “raising the sanity waterline” means “abolishing liberty and ethics.””
That part of the story wasn’t trying to say “this is something that needs to happen to raise the sanity waterline”. Remember, it’s just a fictional story. Rather, it was trying to show an example of something that we today would find incredibly offensive and morally unjustifiable, and yet that became a part of humanity.
Remember that for someone 500 years ago, many of our current practices seem absolutely repugnant and morally unjustifiable, even though today they’re just part of culture. Even 100 years ago, the idea of a black person sitting next to a white person on a bus was considered terrible, not to mention women having any kind of rights at home. In some parts of the world, a woman showing her hair is considered immoral and unjustifiable.
The story just wanted to give something that could happen but most people would think is wrong.
“ This is obviously and offensively wrong. Does the risk of robbery improve living conditions? Does the risk of death improve life? Also, a future society where consent is optional appears to be a terrible dystopia: assuming a free democratic government, lack of consent implies that advertisers and corporations could force consumers to buy things. This quote needs A LOT of additional justification and qualification (and ideally deletion) to avoid implying that “raising the sanity waterline” means “abolishing liberty and ethics.””
That part of the story wasn’t trying to say “this is something that needs to happen to raise the sanity waterline”. Remember, it’s just a fictional story. Rather, it was trying to show an example of something that we today would find incredibly offensive and morally unjustifiable, and yet that became a part of humanity.
Remember that for someone 500 years ago, many of our current practices seem absolutely repugnant and morally unjustifiable, even though today they’re just part of culture. Even 100 years ago, the idea of a black person sitting next to a white person on a bus was considered terrible, not to mention women having any kind of rights at home. In some parts of the world, a woman showing her hair is considered immoral and unjustifiable.
The story just wanted to give something that could happen but most people would think is wrong.