Wednesday, April 23, 2003 :::
At some point I want to start a discussion of society-scale extortion — when do we acquiesce, when do we ignore it, when do we fight back? Do we care about justice or just pragmatism?
North Korea is the obvious contemporary instance of this question being raised, but we have domestic issues of which this is a component as well. If a community riots, is it a good idea to pour resources into that community, particularly if we thereby neglect other wheels which have similar problems but don't squeak? (The existence of such another community weighs more heavily on the moral side, I think, than the practical side.) Suppose the complaints aren't legitimate — do we pour in resources just to shut 'em up?
::: posted by dWj at 11:59 AM