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Originally Posted by TSmelissacarter
Yea, I am the chick with a dick Mr. Businessman comes to see secretly. And yea, that's how I make my money and here's the point Mr. thick-as-a-brick-can't-see-my-third grade level-point: it doesn't matter how you make money. It doesn't matter if it's legal or illegal, highbrow or lowly, it only matters that you make it.
It's what you do after you make the money that matters.
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Well, while I wish you well in life on a humanistic level and you have the right to make your own choices, Melissa, I wouldn't go THAT far. Personally, I think it does matter if money is earned "legal or illegal." And I certainly don't believe that anyone should be allowed to hide behind the all-encompassing blanket excuse of
"It only matters that you make it. It's what you do after you make the money that matters." I mean, that's certainly an incredibly slippery slope of conditional morality -- perpetually convenient only to the person and not showing any responsibility to anyone else or to society as a whole.
For example, I'll use an example that I used before: what about a guy who peddles drugs to young kids at a local school yard? Apply your own equation to that. That guy is making his money by doing something
illegal. And in terms of the cash he's pocketing, he's living by your other rule that
it only matters that you make it. So completely following through with what you said
-- "It's what you do after you make the money that matters" -- are you actually telling us that if he now uses that money to take his elderly mom out for dinner on Mother's Day that THAT made peddling drugs to little kids okay? That because he did something nice for his mom after the drug sale, THAT justified his actions?
Now, on the other hand, maybe what you were simply trying to say is that there are some things that you believe SHOULDN'T be illegal -- such as escorting. Maybe it's your personal belief that more communities should legalize sex work, that it shouldn't be an illegal trade. That would be a different argument and one I could accept more willingly or intellectually than a blanket statement that it doesn't matter AT ALL how someone makes their money, just that they make it. In other words, that the ends ALWAYS justify the means. I think most people would find that viewpoint to be rather extreme or going a bit too far.
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Morality, as history shows us, is constantly redefined but you can't see that because you get your values from an old issue of Reader's Digest. You should go to church, you fit right in with those zombies.
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Well, that's a whole other argument. History has shown us that people might be more forgiving of things, but overall it's far more interesting to note that historically morality hasn't changed much at all. I mean, personality traits such as being lazy or lecherous or a drunk were looked down on in ages past, and they still are now. And certainly more serious things such as thievery and murder were not tolerated then, nor are they now.
So, I would argue that morality hasn't changed, but rather how we deal with any perceived transgressors. In times of old, you might have stoned to death or hung a murderer versus today that person might still be put to death (depending on how heinous the crime was), only today you might also have anti-capital punishment people arguing to simply lock the person away for the rest of their lives.
As for people who believe in God or hold certain higher beliefs, I wouldn't necessarily label them "zombies." Much like you've made certain choices in life and would like people to respect you for them...or at least allow you to practice them...why shouldn't they be allowed to do the same? Or be allowed to believe in certain things without your open mocking? Otherwise you're now showing how intolerant you can be as well, at which point the wheel just spins around and intolerance continues to be the norm. And then no one is served since the cycle just keeps going on and on...