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WeAreAllKin 8 - 01 Mar 2010 - Main.KayKim
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="EbenSalon" |
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-- NonaFarahnik - 25 Feb 2010 | | | I agree with Eben in that a citizenship is an awfully thin distinction. I think Eben brought up the "Mitochondria" example to suggest that nationalism is a social construct; we are all kin biologically, yet we construct some kind of socially constructed barriers and identities to separate each other. This social construction further creates "we" and "they." And suddenly "we" stop caring about what happens to "they" because "they" are not us. Yes we have some kinship in this society, and yes I would care more about those kins, but caring about one group more than another just because of their citizenship, ethnicity, and afilliation seems wrong. | |
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< | Imagine that societal roles were completely re-fashioned and redistributed, and that from behind your veil of ignorance you do not know what role you will be reassigned (Rawlsian Veil). You have an equal chance of being born as an American, an Afghan, or any other national citizen. And let's say that you can construct two kinds of world before you are born in it. What world you want? A world in which strong nations care only about their own citizens, or a world in which every single human being are treated with fairly, at least with respect to their basic human rights? I think which ever world you choose, will be a step closer to achieving fair justice in this world. | >
> | Imagine that societal roles were completely re-fashioned and redistributed, and that from behind your veil of ignorance you do not know what role you will be reassigned (Rawlsian Veil). You have an equal chance of being born as an American, an Afghan, or any other national citizen. And let's say that you can construct two kinds of world before you are born in it. What world you want? A world in which strong nations care only about their own citizens, or a world in which every single human being are treated fairly, at least with respect to their basic human rights? I think which ever world you choose, will be a step closer to achieving fair justice in this world. | | | | |
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< | I am grateful that I was not born as a citizen of some countries, in which there are perpetual Civil Wars. A place in which my mother and sister would get raped and I would get conscripted into the army to continue the vicious cycle and the citizens of powerful nations do not give a crap about me because I am not one of them. I think all of us were fortunate enough to be born with a social identity that greatly helped our lives. But just because this inherently unjust system favors us doesn't mean that we have to condone it all the time. And that's why, although I fail miserably, I try to care equally about different tragedies around the world. Because if the fate had it a little differently, I could have been born above the 38th parallel and never have what I have in this world right now. And that thought scares the crap out of me and makes me want to do something about it. | >
> | I am grateful that I was not born as a citizen of some countries, in which there are perpetual Civil Wars. A place in which my mother and sister would get raped and I would get conscripted into the army to continue the vicious cycle and the citizens of powerful nations do not give a crap about me because I am not one of them. I think all of us were fortunate enough to be born with a social identity that greatly helped our lives. But just because this inherently unjust system favors us doesn't mean that we have to condone it all the time. And that's why, although I fail miserably, I try to care equally about different tragedies around the world. Because if the fate had it a little differently, I could have been born above the 38th parallel and never have what I have in this world right now. And that thought scares the crap out of me and makes me want to do something about it, although I just sit here and whine. | | |
@ Matt I don't think Eben's kin theory is that radical of an idea. He's challenging us to think critically and be morally consistent on where we draw the line between what life we value and what life we don't. |
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