Carnifex Umbris wrote:
Where, then, does personal responsibility come into play? We are more than the sum of our experiences. We have free will, and we can choose our life's path. Obviously if your environment pressures you to immoral behavior you're more likely to give in to those pressures, but at base it's your choice.
It comes into play once you've seen both sides. If you're raised as a racist slaveowner by your racist slaveowner family and grow to the age of 20, it's likely that you'll stay a racist slaveowner forever.
If a gypsy child sees both sides, he'll make a choice, the easy choice or the hard one. Some will make the easy and continue thieving, some will make the hard and be ostracized from their families.
You can't blame a person for doing one thing when one thing is all he was shown all his life. We don't have natural moral compasses at a young age, they're carved as we ripen.
Azrael wrote:
my post above was before you edited.
look, it's not fair that we have to pay for the discrimination brought by our ancestors. and trust me, people have tried and tried to like them, but they just fuck it all up. it's one thing to live outside of our society, it's another to blatantly steal from it. i can't stress this enough - we have given them chances. in the PC-obcessed times we live in they and all other minorities got their shot at integration, but they simply refuse it.
I'm aware it was.
PC-crap doesn't work either because it's more often than not merely clumsily benevolent condescension that's the equivalent of not giving your dog a pat on the head when he piddles on your floor.
Azrael wrote:
and for crying out loud, i NEVER said it was in their blood. they simply chose to not have any consideration for others. i don't remember my sister having done anything wrong to them, yet they didn't hesitate to pull a knife on her and scare the shit out of her.
i don't mind the gypsies who sell shit right next to my home, they never bothered me, but i do mind the animals that steal like they have right to our stuff.
Read my latest post.
Azrael wrote:
so it works both ways! if they act like animals, THEY SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE ANIMALS! i'm not talking about gypsies here, i'm talking about people who steal, no matter what their backgrounds.
and i'm a minority too, an indian in portugal, and even though i got some racist abuse i never never never unloaded on people who didn't deserve it.
BUT TREATING MEN LIKE ANIMALS DOESN'T SOLVE ANYTHING! Violence begets violence, hate begets hate, you sow in wretched fury and you'll reap in wretched weeping.
If that's the way you want the world to work, fine. But I want something better for my kids.