They were taught all through their educations and careers that the most important thing was not to discriminate. So when the moment came when the most important thing of all was to discriminate....
These government bureaucrat persons weren't taught not to discriminate. They were taught not to discriminate on the basis of skin color, sex, age, religion.
They were taught explicitly to discriminate on the basis of merit. Of which vulnerability to disease should be seen clearly to be one merit axis. Too, there's the Leftist push to discriminate on the basis of disability--of which excess vulnerability to disease would have been one.
They were taught not to discriminate against anyone for anything that wasn’t that person’s fault. It wasn’t their fault they got this disease, and therefore it was prima facie wrong to discriminate against them if they needed a bed in a nursing home.
Prima facie means “first face,” and if they’d gotten to a deeper examination they might have seen that it was both right and crucial to abandon the philosophical principle to which they were ordinarily committed. Perhaps; if they had.
You often have been considerably more generous than I. On the other hand, I'm considerably less willing to excuse wilful stupidity, especially among grown, adult human beings. High standards are nearly impossible to meet, better standards are impossible to satisfy. But lower standards aren't standards.
It's hard to accept a lot of new rules as serious, when the people drafting and enforcing them are capable of arguing that a hairdresser who may or not be infected is too dangerous to cut the hair of her client, who may or may not be infected, and vice versa, even if that means the hairdresser loses her job and perhaps her whole business. But someone frankly infected with the virus must not be prevented from moving into a nursing home full of the most vulnerable members of society.
That’s nondiscrimination too: the same rules must apply to the sick and the well, for it’s not one’s fault that they are the one or the other. Those are accidents over which we have no control; and thus the healthy hairdresser mustn’t dress hair, and the sick patient mustn’t be refused a bed at the home.
These government bureaucrat persons weren't taught not to discriminate. They were taught not to discriminate on the basis of skin color, sex, age, religion.
ReplyDeleteThey were taught explicitly to discriminate on the basis of merit. Of which vulnerability to disease should be seen clearly to be one merit axis. Too, there's the Leftist push to discriminate on the basis of disability--of which excess vulnerability to disease would have been one.
Eric Hines
They were taught not to discriminate against anyone for anything that wasn’t that person’s fault. It wasn’t their fault they got this disease, and therefore it was prima facie wrong to discriminate against them if they needed a bed in a nursing home.
ReplyDeletePrima facie means “first face,” and if they’d gotten to a deeper examination they might have seen that it was both right and crucial to abandon the philosophical principle to which they were ordinarily committed. Perhaps; if they had.
Humans thinking they are not slaves.
ReplyDeleteI heard the President is doing some kind of Obama gate hit and run. Well, a bit late but better than never.
Also the fact taht Hussein spied on people... well that was obvious. How do these American traitors get away with so much for so long?
You often have been considerably more generous than I. On the other hand, I'm considerably less willing to excuse wilful stupidity, especially among grown, adult human beings. High standards are nearly impossible to meet, better standards are impossible to satisfy. But lower standards aren't standards.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
It's hard to accept a lot of new rules as serious, when the people drafting and enforcing them are capable of arguing that a hairdresser who may or not be infected is too dangerous to cut the hair of her client, who may or may not be infected, and vice versa, even if that means the hairdresser loses her job and perhaps her whole business. But someone frankly infected with the virus must not be prevented from moving into a nursing home full of the most vulnerable members of society.
ReplyDeleteThat’s nondiscrimination too: the same rules must apply to the sick and the well, for it’s not one’s fault that they are the one or the other. Those are accidents over which we have no control; and thus the healthy hairdresser mustn’t dress hair, and the sick patient mustn’t be refused a bed at the home.
ReplyDelete