Peter Kropotkin wrote:iambiguous wrote:Only_Humean wrote:iambiguous, please stop polluting every board and thread with your hobby-horse abortion discussion.
Note to others:
Where did this come from?
K: I must say, this really came out of left field... polluting every board and thread... really?
on another note, I actually think abortion is a good place to think about idea's
and what you really think....it isn't a straight, clear cut issue.... it has
nuances that often confuse people.....it is really a Rorschach test that forces one
to think about idea's......
Kropotkin
I've tried to explain my admitted "obsession" with this issue.
My "thing" here at ILP is in exploring the existential relationship between identity, value judgments and political economy.
Thus this "groot" pops up frequently:
1] I was raised in the belly of the working class beast. My family/community were very conservative. Abortion was a sin.
2] I was drafted into the Army and while on my "tour of duty" in Vietnam I happened upon politically radical folks who reconfigured my thinking about abortion. And God and lots of other things.
3] after I left the Army, I enrolled in college and became further involved in left wing politics. It was all the rage back then. I became a feminist. I married a feminist. I wholeheartedly embraced a woman's right to choose.
4] then came the calamity with Mary and John. I loved them both but their engagement was foundering on the rocks that was Mary's choice to abort their unborn baby.
5] back and forth we all went. I supported Mary but I could understand the points that John was making. I could understand the arguments being made on both sides. John was right from his side and Mary was right from hers.
6] I read William Barrett's Irrational Man and came upon his conjectures regarding "rival goods".
7] Then, over time, I abandoned an objectivist frame of mind that revolved around Marxism/feminism. Instead, I became more and more embedded in existentialism. And then as more years passed I became an advocate for moral nihilism.In other words, this particular "conflicting good" played a
crucial role in the actual transformation of my thinking
from objectivism
to moral nihilism.
On the other hand, on my mundane babble, philosophy in music and philosophy in film threads, I have contributed literally thousands of posts here at ILP over the years. And, to the best of my recollection, abortion hardly ever comes up in them.
