True or False: Might Makes Right

[AlienGirl]

Poll question: True or False: Might Makes Right

[Deja Q]

1. In extreme circumstances, there is no other way.

I always prefer finding other ways, but there comes a time when there is no time - or other option. :(

Talk softly, but carry a big stick. Even though it's better to make love, not war.

[porphyrian]

2. Absolutes are always false, including this one. - n/t

[Hosnon]

4. Yeah I agree...nt

[Hosnon]

3. Yes - In practice, not in theory. nt

[everythingsxen]

Unfortunately...

it's true.

Even if you are wrong, if you have the might to exterminate everyone with a differing viewpoint, guess what, you just became right.

If you mean it in an objective point of view, by adopting say a Judeo-Christian "Thou Shalt Not Kill" sort of outlook, then no might does not make right. In the absence of God though, might wins.

[AlienGirl]

11. That's why I'm tired of this world.

[everythingsxen]

17. Well, you should fight to change it

:)

[Warpy]

5. Although Mao said all power flowed from the barrel of a gun,

that's not the way to keep power.

Just look at Iraq.

[The Magistrate]

6. It Might As Well, Ma'am

Perhaps the real problem is answering what is right, anyway....

"Remember that two wrongs don't make a right, but three do."

[AlienGirl]

9. Well, Sir, in this context what I am asking is: does power create ethics?

[The Magistrate]

15. No, Ma'am, In My View, It Does Not

It can, sometimes, and for a little while, secure an imitiation of the assent and respect ethical and virtuous behavior will bring to a person or power possessing them, that will be passable at least to the person or power wielding might for the genuine article. The exercise of might is always a species of short-cut, and so is a standing temptation to lapse from virtue, which is a thing of the long term always.

Once the Master said: "If you wish to dwell in a place for a year, cultivate rice. If you wish to dwell in a place for a decade, cultivate an orchard. If you wish to dwell there for a generation, cultivate benevolence."

[Mr_Spock]

7. Poll: Does flame make steak?

lol - I am not sure the point of this so I can't offer anything constructive :rofl:

[Journeyman]

8. "Right makes might. . . "

Mr Lincoln, Cooper Union, February 27, 1860

[rpannier]

10. Might may not make right

but I hear three lefts do.

[hsher]

12. What a lot of people just don't understand is...

... the Tao will win in the end.

The Tao is aligned not with good or evil but with balance. What is unbalanced will be re-balanced. What is balanced will become unbalanced. At its heart is always motion. But evil is more often out of balance. When that occurs, something small will prove its undermining, collapse it, and bring it back into balance. This is called "the preponderance of the small".

There's been a lot of it lately.
Indie film expose's < Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Starbucks
Mark Foley < GOP juggernaut
Michael Richards < The unsinkable comedy ship the U.S.S. Seinfeld
Tiny nations < U.S. imperialism

"Evil doesn't win in the end" isn't accurate. Nor is "might makes right". According to the Tao, that which is out of balance will be righted. And vice versa. And so it goes. That's the only rule.

[proud patriot]

13. False

:think:

[Big Kahuna]

14. Weird polls tonight.

I agree with the Taoist interpretation.

[donheld]

16. Physical Might, Mental Might, Fiscal Might? What kind of might

are we talking about here? It could make a difference.