210. What is now happening, and drawing us into a perverse and barren way of thinking, is the reduction of ethics and politics to physics. Good and evil no longer exist in themselves; there is only a calculus of benefits and burdens.
Perhaps inaccurate. Good and veil are now relative to the individual. What benefits the individual–money, power, influence, or even simple things like the freedom to indulge and believe what one wants–these are good. Evil is what thwarts the intent of others, and made-up synonyms are in play: socialists, heretics, etc..
As a result of the displacement of moral reasoning, the law is no longer seen as reflecting a fundamental notion of justice but as mirroring notions currently in vogue. Breakdown ensues: everything is “leveled down” by a superficial bartered consensus. In the end, the law of the strongest prevails.
Or the law of the loudest.
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