What to do about North Korea...?

As I wrote above, human rights cannot be
imposed. The very idea is silly (how does one "impose" "free choice"?).

One does so by forcibly removing the obstacles to free choice. This is
often a small set of people and a power structure. Then one ensures
that the replacement small set of people and power structure will permit
the governed to choose freely.

Whether this is easy, hard, or next to impossible depends on many
things, including the underlying social structure and the external
politics. Whether this is desirable or not depends on which side of the
gun you sit.

Whether this is morally justified, or morally reprehensible, is the
question, and like many such, it is a tangle of intersecting rights. I
tend towards it being none of our business, until it threatens our
survival, in which case morals take a second place. What is wrong
however is doing this not when it threatens our survival, but when it
threatens to threaten our survival. It's like prosecuting somebody
because they came "too close" to the border of a restricted area.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:54:22 +0000, Jose wrote:

As I wrote above, human rights cannot be imposed. The very idea is
silly (how does one "impose" "free choice"?).

One does so by forcibly removing the obstacles to free choice.

That's not really "imposing". But I'm not sure what word does apply.

[...]

Whether this is morally justified, or morally reprehensible, is the
question, and like many such, it is a tangle of intersecting rights.

We'd not find it acceptable should the police do nothing about a hostage
situation in our home town, eh? Of course, we've hired the police - in
that example - as a collective.

- Andrew

We'd not find it acceptable should the police do nothing about a hostage
situation in our home town, eh?

I don't know. If there's a murder in your home town, would you want
the police from the neighboring state to drive in and blow up all the
houses that look like crack houses, in case the murder were drug related?

The end result may be a safer and more peaceful city. But there is a price.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.