The Cellar - View Single Post - South Africa's high court approves gay marriage

9th Engineer · 11-29-2006, 11:10 PM

No, my reasoning has been spread over quite a few different posts I guess, I'll explain. I believe that I must behave in accordence with the current state of the system, and I also believe that once I make a stand on an issue I must stand by my logic or take back everything based on it right back to the first step. Refering back to something I posted a short while ago I explained my doubts with making a first step because the rest of the system will not be able to remain in isolation from it (that's what I meant when I said it affects me, I am responsible for everything I stand for). So if I said, "I will vote on my conscience that everyone has the right to marry who they love" then I have to make all subsequent decisions without breaking that statement. Because our society is so interlinked other groups would be able to make strong cases based on the same logic, polygamists are already poised to start pushing mainstream. No matter what the consequences of my first decision, I am obliged to support new people and new causes which I may feel very strongly against, because otherwise I would be a hypocrite. Polygamy by itself is a good example. If it becomes mainstream and is purged of the obvious abuses that plauge the isolated communities now then people would probably say that it was a good thing to legalize it. However, the ramifications of legal polygamy are much more complicated (this has been brought up I think), and would probably cause harm overall. However, I would still be stuck by my original statement that people who love each other should be allowed to marry, and can you look at a group of people and say who does and does not love each other? Because of all this I feel that I cannot make that first statement, because I cannot ignore the problems and abuses (intentional and unintentional) that may follow later as a result.
That is how it will affect me tw, I cannot pretend that I live in a system other than the one we have, or that I can make idealistic decisions and retract earlier statements as I see fit. You would be asking me to turn a blind eye to my eventual hypocracy.

11-29-2006, 11:10 PM	#92
9th Engineer Bioengineer and aspiring lawer Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 872	No, my reasoning has been spread over quite a few different posts I guess, I'll explain. I believe that I must behave in accordence with the current state of the system, and I also believe that once I make a stand on an issue I must stand by my logic or take back everything based on it right back to the first step. Refering back to something I posted a short while ago I explained my doubts with making a first step because the rest of the system will not be able to remain in isolation from it (that's what I meant when I said it affects me, I am responsible for everything I stand for). So if I said, "I will vote on my conscience that everyone has the right to marry who they love" then I have to make all subsequent decisions without breaking that statement. Because our society is so interlinked other groups would be able to make strong cases based on the same logic, polygamists are already poised to start pushing mainstream. No matter what the consequences of my first decision, I am obliged to support new people and new causes which I may feel very strongly against, because otherwise I would be a hypocrite. Polygamy by itself is a good example. If it becomes mainstream and is purged of the obvious abuses that plauge the isolated communities now then people would probably say that it was a good thing to legalize it. However, the ramifications of legal polygamy are much more complicated (this has been brought up I think), and would probably cause harm overall. However, I would still be stuck by my original statement that people who love each other should be allowed to marry, and can you look at a group of people and say who does and does not love each other? Because of all this I feel that I cannot make that first statement, because I cannot ignore the problems and abuses (intentional and unintentional) that may follow later as a result. That is how it will affect me tw, I cannot pretend that I live in a system other than the one we have, or that I can make idealistic decisions and retract earlier statements as I see fit. You would be asking me to turn a blind eye to my eventual hypocracy. __________________ The most valuable renewable resource is stupidity.