Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, one-time speculative presidential candidate, and current president of Purdue University has been accused of attempting to use his office to influence the ideological content of Indiana’s classrooms so as to silence dissenting opinions. Specifically, he is accused of attempting to prevent schools from using A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a deceased academic. Daniels did indeed attempt to prevent the book from being taught in schools, as he freely admits–was this morally permissible of him?
Author: Benjamin Studebaker
What is Society?
In political theory, there is some disagreement about what precisely society is. Liberal theorists believe that society is just an amalgamation of individual interests. Libertarians often argue that there is no society at all, that the individual interests are all there are. Both views contrast with the collectivist view, that there are irreducible social goods that cannot be located in individuals at all, because these goods require a society to exist in the first place. Today I’d like to weigh in on the topic by arguing that there are indeed goods that typically require society, but that this nonetheless does not make them irreducible. Society is more than the sum of various individual interests, but it is not separate from its component people either. Let’s dive in.
Zimmerman Trial Hysteria
Remember a little while back when George Zimmerman killed Travyon Martin (either in self defense or out of racism, depending on who you talk to)? Of course you do. You almost certainly also know that Zimmerman was recently acquitted. This is not the only trial you probably know something about. You might also know something about the Amanda Knox trial, the Drew Peterson trial, the Casey Anthony trial, the Ariel Castro trial, the OJ Simpson trial, the Michael Jackson trial, all of the various mass shooters and their trials, any number of criminal trials in recent years that the media has attached itself to and reported the proceedings of on a day to day basis. My contention today is that you shouldn’t know about these trials. None of us should. Because they don’t matter.
The Firing Squad Case
Today I’d like to evaluate the firing squad case, a hypothetical scenario used in moral philosophy in an attempt to demonstrate that individuals are morally obliged not to participate in collectively harmful activities. A collectively harmful activity is an activity that is harmful, but is only in aggregate. For instance, driving your car is not individually harmful, but it is collectively harmful–while your emissions will make no difference at all to the future climate of the planet, the emissions of everyone together will make a difference. Let’s have a look at the case.
Democracy’s Origin Story
I have some new thoughts today concerning where the modern emphasis on democracy comes from. Why have so many states decided to become democracies, and why do so many people consider all alternative governments unsuitable? There’s no news story to link you to, no current events connection, this post is just from my mind to yours, dear reader. So let’s get started.
Benjamin Studebaker 