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@Mockingbird - your critique of Communism is well short of the mark. Communism is much more sophisticated than a vague notion that, hey, sharing's nice, guys. Marxism, for example, has at its centre a series of strong metaphysical claims - the social aspect is only a side effect. The same tends to be true of other communistic movements, although in different ways. (The Levellers were communists of a sort, but you can't compare 17th-century religious radicals with Marxists.)


@ancrenne:
Your points suppose that people disagreeing will automatically fight wars about their disagreements. There is no causal link - that is not inevitable. What starts wars isn't difference but the belief, and actions taken base don that belief, that one party has the right to assert power over the other by force.

What's wrong with force? And - even allowing that there is something - why is there a significant moral difference between force and reason? (After all, we do tend to think in terms of people being forced to accept this or that by a powerful argument.) I'm not sure that there is one - although it's something I want to do more work on.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 11:46, Reply)