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I think pretty much nobody stands by their principles. Because ultimately principles are a means to an end, and if the end is not achieved, they're discarded.
by dale_glass 4y ago
I think pretty much nobody stands by their principles. Because ultimately principles are a means to an end, and if the end is not achieved, they're discarded.
And this really makes perfect sense to me when you think of it. We're not logical robots. If whatever principles we hold backfire badly enough, we'll discard them or add exceptions because the reason for those principles is that we believe they make a better world. If the world is not made better, then the principles failed in their aim.
Morality needs a degree of flexibility to survive, or somebody will exploit it.
- zmgsabst 4y agoExcept that, in this case, discarding them led to a worse world: - bitter divisions in the nation because they subverted the consensus mechanism - poor policy decisions because we didn’t have a robust debate about options - poor medical outcomes because we didn’t exercise due caution The reason we had those principles in the first place was to avoid repeats of past bad outcomes from not having them — and they were discarded at a societal level for shortsighted reasons. Your job as a leader is to uphold those principles in hard times because they’re the path to a better outcome. And our leaders badly failed us.
- dale_glass 4y agoActually I'm not sure what you're talking about. Give specific examples of those things?
- dennis_jeeves1 4y agoI guess it depends on what you define as a principle. You are in a manner correct, but saying that "nobody stands by their principles" is not nuanced enough. I personally would broaden the definition that a principle depends on the context, and in the simplest sense a principle has to work in your favor in the long run. For example honestly is generally a good policy, but not if you are a Jew trying to hide your ethnicity in Nazi Germany.