PS - apologies: realised the title should be "amoral", not "immoral"
As I keep working through various texts on political science, including international political science, it is disturbing how the focus is on "interests", and morals are deliberately excluded or minimised.
The definition of "interests" is along the lines of physical wealth, status (in a very schoolyard sense), and power. Now, this may well explain the behaviour of individual people or nations, but, where their behaviour causes harm, in my opinion, criticism of the harm should be made.
If no criticism is made, one is acquiescing to wrong, and thus guilty of being at least a moral accessory.
As the great Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."I also wish to point out that I object to anyone making assumptions about what I want or "need" - especially when those assumptions err towards unethical (i.e., what I am terming "immoral" in this post) matters such as economic behaviour that involves environmental degradation, child slavery and other worker abuse, fighting back on safety standards (such as smoking and roll cages for quad bikes - which US manufacturers are apparently too incompetent to provide, given the USA's actions against this safety measure).
The worst example of that is the thoroughly evil John Howard attempting to s***w East Timor over oil. My nation is already wealthy: we don't need that extra supply of oil (we have developed and potential assets elsewhere), and to use unethical and, in my opinion, illegal actions such as spying to rob a poor nation is unconscionable.
I've made submissions in the past (e.g., here) about these matters, but I suspect the combination of group think in the department and political hostility in the Minister's office means they didn't get anywhere.
Nevertheless, I made an effort, and if enough people argue for decency, our little snowflakes of individual effort will become an avalanche of accountability.
PS - in terms of morals, my personal philosophy is what I term "Balanced Positive and (spiritually) Mature"; in politics, it is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
