It's morally incoherent, in general, to try and choose between two people, both of whom are threatening to interfere forcibly in my life.
In which case the logical choice is the lesser of the two evils.
Only if you've decided to give up on life and
accept shooting or bludgeoning. By your standard, a man can threaten a woman with either rape or forcible sodomy, and you'd counsel her to "choose the lesser of the two evils." The man has no right to present her with such a choice, and she has no moral obligation to pick one.
Choosing 'None Of The Above' is a selfish cop-out to circumvent social responsibility while maintaining an inner (but false) sense of superiority.
If enough of us choose "none of the above," we can have it. Especially if all of us making that choice can pass the
AQT and have a suitable
MBR.
You can thump your chest that you "cared enough to do the right thing" when, in reality, all you've done is sit on your butt and complain to the rest of us who cared enough at least try.
What are you claiming you've "tried"? Choosing between two multi-billion-dollar thieves? Supposing you win, what are you proud of? That your guy stole
one trillion, but the other guy
might have stolen 1.3 trillion? Both guys are thieves. The only moral approach is to try and stop
both of them.
It's possible I'll make an exception and vote for Ron Paul, because I believe that he will actually refrain
entirely from stealing or killing. But between Bush and Gore? If I
had voted, I would have voted for Bush--and subsequent events have proven what a mistake that would have been. Bush spent more than
Clinton. Heck, he spent more than any human in the history of the
universe. He's responsible for fewer deaths than Mao or Stalin or Hitler, but orders of magnitude more than Gore would have been. Even his damn Kyoto protocol would have been cheaper than Bush.
So take your pick. Feel free. Would you rather be shot, or stabbed?
Len Budney's stance reminds me of the hypothetical dilemma of whether or not it would be okay to murder one person if it would cure cancer.
I hate those college-course "dilemmas," but the answer is no: murder is not OK. The most evil invention of our species is the "greater good"; a concept that allows us to do evil in the name of good.
--Len.