Horticulture and Agriculture

Straight from the office of small-minded New Zealanders comes John Keys’ fantastic idea, a ‘global alliance’ to promote horticulture and agriculture. Apparently he and his heroin-addict lady friend, the feared East German überhag Helen Clark, have so disappointed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they, MFA, have decided to argue that all peoples have the right to get high. John Key sees this as a new opportunity to bludge money off other people so his chums can disprove the existence of the sun and probably convinced himself it was his idea while stoned and arranging for yours truly to get arrested for possession of marijuana. Maybe he wants to research the reason Kurt Wendelborn’s farts smell the way they do – mutant phospholipase allele? We’ve already done the math, the geographics, the genetics, the biochemistry, and the grain bowl analysis – dirty poo chewers from Germany with a link to the temple of Baal and the home of Babylon, east of Palestine which is east of Egypt which is west of the place that that Jewish guy called Palestine.

The consumerist version of the Global Alliance for Peace, an Inconvenient Truth (I was right, George Washington lied — so when is it okay to not say anything?), and the sensible idea to not allow any genetic modification but in flowers until we have people check the flowers for negative auras?

Quit stealing my stuff.  Give it back.

Amorality, Society, and Ethics

Religion, or more recently, morality is nothing more than a set of norms enforced on inhabitants to limit behaviour. The social contract of Rousseau and Locke has the safety and security of person and property as the core and the benefits of specialisation and cooperation as the bonus.

I accept no unfounded morality. However, once we, in society, have agreed upon some social compact, then we have arrived at contingent morality. Not to say that I would allow rape or abuse. In the wild that wrong would not be repeated by the same person. In society, however, we develop sets of identifying and acceptable behavioural patterns. Do not tell me how to behave except in public or in a situation which grossly affects the public. Although I hold to the principle, the notion of preference frustration is a good guage of the effects of one’s actions.

A paper on the Philosophy of the Natural Sciences in 1997 with Dr. Nick Agar gave me the opportunity to write about the naturalistic fallacy and the ethics of gene therapy.

I have a great problem with the categorical imperative. While all individuals must be treated as being of equal worth, there are those individuals with greater ability who fill positions of greater responsibility and, so one would hope, privilege. There might be seven generals, one in a situation to make a decision. The environment of that situation requires attention and detail, more so than the bed and footlocker in the barracks. But when at home or at a restaurant, the general and the private are equal.

Genetic Engineering and Genetic Islands

We all know the story of Jurassic Park.  An island upon which once extinct creatures are brought back to life in the safety of a geographically isolated region.