There is no freedom without ethics and morality
fellow human beings by Dr. Thomas Huber *
I begin with two quotations: one from Benjamin Franklin who said, give up, "Who the freedom to gain security will end up losing both, "and with a second statement of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt:" Security is a precondition for freedom, "
the beginning of my remarks, I would like to define security and freedom short.
to First Security: An individual is safe if it is in a state without Danger to life, limb and property is located, if the rule of law and democratic institutions are functioning reliably and consistently and you at all times, independent and has committed to the truth of information.
When I explained to me the issue was, I did not omit to consult the PC in order by "googling" extract something useful! The exercise was of short duration: More than thousand entries dealt with the issue of security - it seems one of the enduring problems of modern man to be to obtain "security" in all circumstances and at any price, even if lost by other values !
For freedom: According to Kant, human dignity, the autonomy of his will, his freedom. This freedom is the foundation of all mankind's constitution and the democratic and constitutional principle. The outer freedom is the independence of any other necessary final arbitrariness of the constraint. Inner freedom is grounded in the morality which can not be achieved without morals.
loss of proportionality
It was also clear to me that has been lost in all of our lives, the proportionality. If Mr Ospel as the top banker at UBS earned more than 800 times the cleaning lady - noted in one way on the first day when they was not there, while the Board is extremely unlikely - that's a sign that the middle way has been lost. It lacks the gray tones. In many areas there is only black or white, in political polarization in the left and right - there is no fruitful dialogue, but only one for or against. The responsibility of special interests in every form to prevent a progressive development of our society.
The loss of balance, the arbitrariness, the short-term profit, greed and crawl out from any responsibility are essential characteristics of our contemporary situation. That particularly our elites of all Couleur profile in this reprehensible attitude speaks volumes.
Allow me some brief reflections in the light of the statement in the 2nd Moses, Exodus 24: "An eye for eye, tooth for a tooth" - a statement that the issues identified in basically the balance, proportionality, we should also keep in dealing with our adversaries. live is only the beginning of a mandatory law on Mount Sinai by Moses gave the people the security, freedom to be able to.
I refer to in these observations of my own experiences and things that have happened in the last couple of years before the eyes of the world.
During my assignment as an ICRC delegate in Lebanon at the beginning of the 70 years I was responsible for a refugee camp of about 10 000 refugees, mainly Palestinians. The people who stole from the camp and the local police made problems. The reason was the hunger and the loss of home and freedom - in neighboring Germany after the war there was a saying: "pilfering is permitted." The reactions of the Israelis were disproportionate in every respect. To obtain more security for themselves, they limited the freedom of inmates solid, a part of international law. There were also other restrictions, such as reduced water, food and medicines. This was the cycle of violence opened: It was followed by bomb attacks by the Palestinians and in turn the flash back 10 times the Israeli army. Today we have in Gaza, a security wall and a barrier to the Berlin Wall at the inferior border of the GDR in nothing and have been installed with the largest prison on the planet. The price of the security on the one hand, the total loss of freedom on the other side.
The eleventh of September is - regardless of how you judge him, whether carried out by Americans themselves as to the legitimacy of preventive war or assassination of al-Qaeda - is perhaps the most glaring example of what people are willing to invest when it comes to alleged safety of it: namely, the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Especially dramatic is when God is being exploited in the name of a crusade against evil for a crime against humanity. The use of uranium munitions on a large scale and thus the acceptance of tens of thousands of genetically damaged children is another feature of this incredible loss of proportionality. The organization
Switzerland Afghanistan, which I presided as president and wanted to achieve with donations and money from the SDC, the Department for Development and Cooperation of the Federal, agricultural projects in Afghanistan had, including the project for safety Cancel: Locally, the schools, especially girls, destroyed by Taliban and shot the teacher, and trust people turned out to be CIA agents. This was an impossible freedom to be realized in agriculture project for peace.
In the following - not entitled to the scheme and by no means considered to be complete - a few points of gone awry balance in the light of freedom and security are mentioned:
First, the security report of the covenant would have the question read: How much security does the people to be able to continue to develop in peace and freedom? Is it alone acceptable? Is there a middle way? Or do we need a connection to an alliance within the EU, NATO or the UN? Should Switzerland actually - as the GSoA, the company wants to Switzerland without an army, - be demilitarized? Can they still credibly claim to be neutral, then if NATO must ensure the safety? Should Switzerland is actually a "free-riding" at the expense of seeking alliances to which they want to belong not political?
The policy has become more difficult to calculate because there has been a polarization between left and right and the center is struggling to strike a balance. The predictability has come under the wheels.
The company, which marked a strong SME sector could rely, who was responsible for the security, is under increasing pressure because of the expense of middle class political economy to bear.
was moreover pointed Luther in his work on the Freedom of a Christian that security is a fundamental prerequisite for faith in the confidence in the truth!
And today's penal system is an exemplary example of the lack of proportionality: Where to start, where does the basic rights of a prisoner, and where the safety of the population has a higher priority?
The list would continue as required. But what is the reason that we are practically in all spheres of life disciplines and the measure of things have lost?
lack of morality is
The theory that human development by a lack "of love and truth", is hampered by a lack of morality. And indeed, many of today's evils have something to do with a lack of consistent ethical penetration of our own feelings, thoughts and actions. This is not so keen to ensure that ethical principles are missing, but probably more so because these bases are too little attention - which raises some questions as: Why
these bases are not observed?
Why is the observance of these principles called for too little?
What is needed so that these principles are not only written but also in a mass attention that they shape our life together? Only
alone to answer these three questions is a human task. But this task must be addressed urgently. Because humanity sees itself more and more confronted with the fact that only prosecuted criminally to be named sentiments and actions not only in the state to find the criminal milieu and are usually the exception, but that very influential part of our "elites" in politics, economics and finance, military, media and culture, to - as the church father Augustine would say - have degenerated into "bandits" justice with which the feet occur without being prosecuted by the state.
The measureless waste of taxpayers' money in the EU, whose Günstlingskultur the opinion manipulation, the totally non-transparent business processes and the absolutely undemocratic decision-making - are examples of this abound read in the book, "The European case" by Hans-Peter Martin - or the questionable commitment to the NATO in Afghanistan - these are all aspects of contemporary events, which take the safety of the citizens to live in a democratic state in freedom!
proves to be particularly far turned out that the many public lies of our "elites" ever more Confidence and have destroyed the traditional legal principle of "good faith" the coexistence and cooperation is based on the premise that people act decently and honestly, is called into question.
But all the variants of "Trust is good, control is better" up to "the virtue terrorism" are no prospects, and they also no convincing alternatives to the once destroyed confidence dar. A turning point to better cope with an inner safety orientation to a fellow human beings ethics.
fellow human beings ethics
What conditions should ensure a shift?
A classical education is more necessary than ever, because the question can not read Goethe or Googling? Who will explain to the students our future, the world? While it is obvious that the school is to teach practical skills: reading, writing, arithmetic, Googling (a new verb that will prevail), the use of PC and Internet. But the decisive factor is that the school has to teach ideals and contexts that precede all practical individual benefits. In particular, the culture is to recognize as a tissue in which it all fits together. Motifs of Greek mythology or the Bible as we encounter in literature, opera, theater, museum, but also in thousands of everyday things. To him that she deciphered, reveals the world as complex readable book. And with that he experienced a joy of recognition that goes beyond any material benefit.
What do we need? Our time is marked by pendulum between expectation and disappointment, always from one extreme to another. The great hopes that we make our burst, on the sharp edges of reality.
good faith must re-apply
The writer and pioneer of journalism, Matthias Claudius, so rather: have something solid, the man. The flights of his goals in life you can not build on sand.
We need people to which one can rely on. That can not promise when they promise something. Prophet who preach against the tide of time. People with foresight, perspectives and life goals. People can trust. No fear and alarmist, but encouragement. Not pessimistic, but hope. Probably we need more leadership in all areas again as management.
The resurgent belief in creation is not a comprehensive prevention suffering insurance, no vaccination against poverty and worries of everyday life. And yet it releases forces, with the suffering to be done before it overwhelms us and we break the theodicy.
God is not a guarantee of morality nor religion is a supplier of a world view. Rather, morality and belief is a matter of rationality of man, and thus a proof of his adulthood.
One should we bear in mind: the happiness we all seek is anything for granted. If luck does not come true, people feel cheated and are looking for a scapegoat.
The French sociologist Pascal Bruckner commented in the newspaper "Le Temps" by analogy as follows: our societies have been living in the era of the sixties "pursuit of happiness." This happiness is considered an acquired right at birth. If it does not come true, people feel cheated and are therefore looking for a scapegoat. The risks of life are in fact, incompatible with the happiness. So when the emergency occurs, someone inevitably thwarted the happiness or provoked the accident. The suffering, death, the risks of life are unacceptable. Victims are given a sacred character. Because of this victimization, a new social contract is closed, which indicates a compensation culture, which the state assigns an almost divine role, especially in a society that tries to push aside any religious act.
Greifbar the responsibility
Lastly, a revelation of our national saint - for me, one of Switzerland's largest, if not the greatest, without which we here in this little Form would be assembled, Brother Klaus. His advice "stuck the fence not too far" allowed the Stans, thus saving the old Confederation. The message is a general one. It is called something other words: If small, calculable for your countrymen, measurable, transparent, supportive and tangible in the responsibility! This is certainly a guarantee for freedom. •
Paper presented at the XVIII. Congress' ethics for courage "on the topic" Direct Democracy - an honest way rather than in Feldkirch \u0026lt;Social Engineering> of 3-05.09.2010
* Dr. dipl. Ing.-Agr. ETH Thomas Huber is a colonel, retired instructor of mountain warfare troops, he was twelve Annual school commander of the train recruits in schools Luzisteig. He now teaches ethics and religion in Chur.
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