Answering Sam Harris' Question
by tristero
Sam Harris asks: But, leaving aside the practical and political impossibility of doing so, could we even allow ourselves to contemplate liberating the women and children of traditional Islam?
Long version: Leaving aside "practical and political" issues makes this ipso facto an empty, meaningless question. Dangerously so, as it implies both a simplistic idea of what a moral absolute is, and it also seeks to replace reasoned discourse by recourse to emotions, especially guilt and shame (for failing to act). No moral action exists in a practical and political vacuum. Ever. And truly moral actions cannot be anchored merely on an emotional response.
Shorter version: this is the fallacy behind Kanan Makiya's now infamous (and truly lunatic) call to topple Saddam by replacing experience with hope, a fallacy embraced with gusto by the liberal hawks
Even shorter version: This is rank imperialism dressed up as embarrassingly naive Cumbaya.
Shortest version: No.