[rhondalea]

This is an odd twist, where I disagree with Rhonda, and agree with Johnny.
Rhonda wrote:
>>it's not your business what someone else does<<
This lack of accountability is what is entirely wrong with the world.?

I agree that the lack of accountability is what is wrong with the world. I am fearful, however, of how we implement accountability. Everyone has an opinion of how the world should be run. Some act on it. In the most extreme example, some leveled a couple of very tall buildings.

Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.

Agreed. But first you have to define evil. And then, somehow, you must make it square with "my right to swing stops at the end of your nose." Heinlein asked: "Who decides?" My theoretical answer is "I decide only for me." My practical answer has gotten me in trouble more often than not, because I am hot-headed and judgmental unless I guard carefully against being so.

The hard part of that is that there is gut-wrenching evil in the world, and someone does have to stop it, but as I said above, implementation is the rub.

Having sex with animals is evil, as is smuggling truckloads of cocaine.

This is not about me disagreeing with you, Avery. It's about what I wrote above. I was educated as a philosopher, specifically as an ethicist. I know what I believe to be good and evil, but I recognize some of what I believe to be based on no more than my gut instinct. And the trouble with that is that much of what we crusade against is the direct result of the gut instinct of someone else.

The doer of the deeds is quite disgusting, and should be held accountable.

I am also--for most of my life--a wildlife rehabilitator, and I have been known to be extremely confrontational with abusers of animals.

In this case, I'm inclined to take a more pragmatic view, but I don't really want to get into the ins and outs of that in this forum.

This thread is quite disgusting, and has nothing to do with BASE.
Can we get back to BASE now?

That would be a good thing.

I don't always agree with you, Avery, but I respect you, and I know you to have a good heart. What I have written above is intended to further explicate my earlier post, and should not be construed by anyone as a desire on my part to argue with you. Because I won't.

rl