"Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe

Jeff Wilson · 01 May 2011, 23:13 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 18:13:01 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: (urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe
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> I see. But that's a practical matter, not a theoretical one.

If you agree that we as an actual society cannot practice abstention from
exploitation, why are you maintaining that the irreducible minimum of
exploitation can still be morally wrong in a relevant sense? Should we
dissolve our societies?


> it's a problem, but if the conditions of horizontal and vertical
> nonexclusive democracy are met, then theoretically, why should not the
> worst excesses of strong arms (excess mortality, morbidity, deformities,
> poverty) be avoided?


Because you can't get the democracy to agree on a uniform ranking of which
excesses are worse than others. Not even murder is a universally agreed
upon excess in democracies; as late as 1970, cuckoldry was allowed as a
defense in Texas.

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