The Anti-Manichaeist

Josh Marshall aptly points out that the BushAdmin is lying about the fact that the US let bin Laden get away at Tora Bora because we ‘outsourced’ the job to local warlords and militiaman. He acknowledges that it may have been a mistake that reflected our lack of experience in such warfare, but reiterates that it is a lie to deny that it happened.

Which gets at the bigger question of whether we let the ends justify the means. Now, many people seem to use the term pragmatic as an epithet, nowadays. But this does not reflect pragmaticism as developed by C. S. Peirce. We should judge actions based on their likely consequences, not our intentions, but we should judge our actions based on all of their likely consequences and we should be open to learning about additional, unintended consequences of our actions. The need to consider the many different, likely consequences of different actions and to weight their seriousness is an integral part of habits of deliberation.

Too many in the religious right have not thought through the likely consequences of voting for Bush based on their single issues. They frame it with statistics about the number of abortions taking place or the decline of moral values, backing up their beliefs with several references to scripture, but they do not connect the dots very well. They do not exhibit an understanding of the political process and its need for fallible judgments about what can and cannot be changed. A good example of this sort of thinking is found in this article on the likely consequences of a Kerry presidency.

Pro-lifers, like Charles J. Chaput the archbishop of Denver, refer to the “choice” in abortion as the choice to end an unborn human beings life as a fact. When the belief that the newly-formed zygote is a human being is not by any means factual as factual is defined in scientific or philosophical terms. A belief is not a fact if one group believes and accepts it, while others do not accept it. Facts are usually widely accepted by all who have examined the evidence and there is not a consensus that: having human dna, being biologically alive, with the potential to develop into a “fully developed” human being makes one a human being. If there is anything factual it is that there is some ambiguity as to when we become human beings. But the fact that there is some ambiguity does not mean that we can’t agree to rules that will guide us in when a woman can elect an abortion or strive to set up a culture of life that will reduce both poverty and abortion.

But as for I and my blog, we see no evidence that the BushAdmin stands for higher values or the culture of life and we will vote for Kerry.
dlw

ps,
On a happier note, it appears that the boxed trilogy set of the Matrix Movies is coming out soon with extensive commentary by Cornel West and Ken Wilber. I’m glad I waited to buy the movies. Now if I only had any money.
dlw