Right, but is "doing pretty good for oneself" the yardstick that we use for what is moral and what isn't? If that's the case, then Bernie Madoff was a pretty moral guy, up until he got busted.
As Man of Steel said, I think that the initiation of violence and force are irrational (and, incidentally, immoral) and once someone decides to use force and violence against me, I am justified in responding using any means available to me, including violence and force.
"the yardstick" What is that yardstick? Man? Community of men?
As I understand it, we exist in an accelarating, expanding, dying cosmos; although, our existence is basically a cosmological radar blip…an outlier that will be eliminated....we are cosmic nothingness. The cosmos began with a bang and will end with a whimper via continued expansion, accelaration and all life will succumb to a cold, dark death. Given that foundation of chaos and lack of purpose the rational reason we strive for is merely illusory and the rational values we employ are essentially meaningless as we have no purpose on our own. Still, somehow, during that cosmic radar blip, within the expanse of utter chaos, our galaxy/solar system/planet magnificently aligned and formed with such precision that it approaches even mathematical limits of possibility (that remaining possibility is amazingly small, but I concede mathematically not impossible). Yet modern cosmology knows without a doubt that we are doomed yet we cling to the illusion of our own evolved morality and believe that harmony is the appropriate value to adhere to despite the ever-present and inevitable state of chaos we exist in. Our man-made notion of morality is utterly meaningless by itself because we are essentially meaningless on our own; unless our existence has a genuine foundation of purpose. Something beyond man, something beyond our perception of a chaotic universe, something that transcends the expanse of time and space, something with purpose that transcends our bubble of chaos is the only reason we can define morality. In an existence of chaos we are that chaos until we introduce the yardstick, the transcendent bar with which to gauge genuine value and purpose from.
