baradar_jackson, on 01 March 2012 - 02:10 AM, said:
The brother who started this thread took the wrong approach...
He should question the very concept of "human rights" itself. It never was a genuine idea, but rather part of a subtle plan for transition from colonialism to neo-colonialism.
Human rights as a concept existed long before Wilson and his 14 point speech or other feeble attempts at strategically and selectively implementing justice when it is convenient to do so.
Human rights is a real concept that has deep rooted theoretical and anthropological underpinnings. We can argue vigorously about its ineffective or hypocritical implementation, about its domestic v international scope, or about what rights need to be respected.. but very few people would challenge the moral imperative that slaughtering innocents, raping women, or torturing political prisoners is justified simply due to the fact that certain international organizations like NATO or the UN pay more attention to one country over another.
baradar_jackson, on 29 February 2012 - 10:07 PM, said:
This is one of the most false slogans that has ever been uttered. And it is repeated a lot. In the US, high school history classes teach this as gospel.
But it's not true.
If you see that someone is "good" and then he gains power and becomes "corrupted," this is not that power corrupted him! No. He was corrupt from the beginning; power tested him, and he failed the test.
We are all tested in different ways. Not all people lust after power. Some people may lust after money. Others may lust after women. Others may lust after fame/notoriety/recognition. There are an infinite number of ways in which people are tested. Power is one way; if someone appears to have been corrupted by power, it is in fact that before he had power, his true nature had not been put to the test!!
For example: a barefoot, hungry person; would you call him "not greedy"??? How would you even know that he is not greedy, if you have not seen him be in a position where he has something to be greedy about?!?!?!
So this slogan is incorrect. People come to believe in these slogans from reading ridiculous books like Animal Farm.
P.S. many individuals have been given this test, and passed!!
My point wasn't that power corrupts everyone regardless of these characteristics, but rather that it doesn't spare anyone because they have a certain race, religion, political leaning, etc.
Everyone is susceptible to it and not being corrupted by power tends to be the exception rather than the general trend. I am not even making a statement against entire governmental structures but rather referring more generally toward law enforcement and judges in the United States and elsewhere who abuse their power to extract benefits, monetary or otherwise. While these observations are not the product of reading
Animal Farm, Orwell can hardly be faulted for pointing out an extremely obvious societal underpinning in his body of work.
Edited by Zahratul_Islam, 02 March 2012 - 02:37 AM.