Days after Bernie suffers a heart attack, his forty-six year old daughter-in-law suddenly dies of cancer. I am exhausted after one day of travel and teaching that pales in comparison to what he, and others, have been doing for months in pursuit of the Democratic Party nomination. There is really nothing to say save that I hope he can survive these blows. Today Bernie announced that he would be cutting back on the pace of his campaigning.
It is mean-spirited and beneath me to say that I hope Trump suffers comparable blows, but there it is. Nobody ever accused me of being a nice guy.
Oh, no. That must be terrible for Bernie and his family. And I suppose Bernie has to have the additional worry: "If Trump stays in power, then will I in retrospect have done everything I could to help defeat him, or would the outcome be different if I had struggled even more?" But it's quite possible I'm projecting - for one thing, I admittedly haven't quite rid myself of the Catholic stuff.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Catholic stuff...
That last line about hoping for Trump to suffer comparable blows - I relate, and I doubt there are more than a tiny number of your readers who couldn't relate. No judgment here.
But for the sake of discussion, I will say that when I strain myself (in my thought-life, anyway) to be as ethically serious as I'm capable of being, I have misgivings even with the viewpoint that states: "If somebody must suffer, it is better for an evil person to suffer than for a virtuous person to suffer (all else being equal)." As far as I can see, the only legitimate rival to that viewpoint would state, not that it's better for the *virtuous* person to suffer instead, but rather that nobody deserves to suffer (i.e. for the mere sake of suffering). I almost reflexively admire the person (e.g., Derek Parfit - an atheist, for what it's worth) who endorses the latter view, but I also sense the possibility that it's badly mistaken and ought to be "put away with childish things" - I haven't yet managed to make any headway on this.
P.S. Enjoying your Autobiography of an Ex-White Man.
God bless Mr. Sanders' daughter-in-law and God bless Mr. Sanders. Mr. Sanders must be made of true iron-like tenacity to continue on with his campaign. The senator's courage reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt when he was shot at the podium but continued with his speech until the end. Senator Sanders' bravery in the face of his set backs may just get him more supporters.
ReplyDeleteI don't enjoy seeing anyone suffer, not even Trump. I couldn't imagine myself deriving pleasure from, say, torturing Trump, but you can make a fairly good consequentialist argument that humanity as a whole would be better off if Trump were to drop dead of a heart attack this afternoon or even if he were to die under torture.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't see any reason to include his daughter-in-law in the picture although the death of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, might benefit humanity too.
Bernie corrected his statement about cutting back, saying he would continue to do 4 events a day.
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