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Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 10:05am Apr 14, 2001 EST (#2237 of 2238)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The ability to communicate and shared ethical standards are essential to business relations - and to peaceful relations.

U.S.-Russia Relationship Warms Up a Bit by Jane Perlez http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/13/world/13DIPL.html

Powell, on Balkans Trip, Warns Against Fresh Violence by Jane Perlez http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/14/world/14DIPL.html

Boeing and Russia to Study Making Planes by Sabrina Tavernise http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/14/business/14JETS.html

So an important question is, how do you create a system of international ethics that is transcultural?

rshowalter - 10:08am Apr 14, 2001 EST (#2238 of 2238)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

How do you create a system of international ethics that is transcultural?

I've tried to deal with that on a Guardian thread that asks Why isn't Japan facing upto past war crimes? http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee80cc0/0

The question of an international ethics that is transcultural is a serious question. The Japanese stance toward WWII offers an interesting example where some of the core problems are on view. The Japanese government and people refuse to acknowledge many terrible things they did - including testing germ warfare agent on human subjects, killing thousands of Chinese civilians in doing so, the rape of Nanking and many other atrocities, and the horrific degradation of Korean girls. Sometimes picture speak better than words- for pictures taken by the Japanese during WWII see http://www.nojum.co.kr/japan/japan.html

I've dealt with the question of international, transcultural standards of ethics in that thread, from #90 http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee80cc0/97 to #114 http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee80cc0/120

In these passages, I describe work that Dawn Riley and I have done, together, to make the Golden Rule, which is common ground across many cultures, more operationally. Dawn Riley and I have been trying, carefully, and at a high effort level, to help bring into being a sensible and workable international, intercultural ethics.

We've made our major arguments in

Science/ Paradigm Shift .... whose getting there? http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7726f/0 . In this thread, we've focused the idea of perceptual impasse between social groups more carefully than anyone has before, we believe, and have focused especially on the core requirement that facts have to be checked, and sometimes this can require some sort of umpiring.

Issues/ Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and Woman - As natural as human goodness? http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0 has focused on the fact that, while people are "good" to members of their group -- some very ugly traits are natural - including deception, dehumanization, and violence, when we deal with "outsiders." We believe that the world would be safer, and measurably more humane and beautiful, if this were widely understood, and allowed for. People need to assume the need for, and fashion, social arrangements that are conducive to decency. We can't simply trust to "nature." Because "natural" behaviour can be ugly, when people deal with "outsiders."

Dawn and I, working together, have focused the idea of the connections between aesthetics, practicality, and the intellect, in the notion of disciplined beauty. rshowalter 2/9/01 1:53pm discussed at more length in the Why isn't Japan facing upto past war crimes? thread. In a sense, we are talking about applying aesthetic notions, especially notions of proportion, to "modeling" or "imagining" -- something that is essential if we are to get our "golden rule thinking" to the point of useful answers. We discuss this from #90 http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee80cc0/97 to #114 http://politicstalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee80cc0/120

#113: For a VERY wide range of circumstances, it is more beautiful to tell the truth, on entirely objective grounds, because truth is much more likely to fit the complicated, unpredictable circumstances that people have to deal with. Any lie may, in some unforseable way, cause a decision that matters to go wrong in a way that is ugly.

#114: Too many lies, and a culture's ability to adapt may be very compromised. That may have happened in Japan, with respect to WWII, family relations, and some other things.

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