Compromise is never anything but...

[Kire]

...an ignoble truce between the duty of a man and the terror of a coward.
~Reginald Wright Kaufman

[Thrasybulus]

1. Compromise is ESSENTIAL in a pluralistic society.

Take the divisive issue of abortion. The religious right believes that abortion is murder. The left believes that abortion is about the right of a woman to control her own life-the right to privacy.

Both sides believe deeply that their position is morally justified. If there is no compromise what is the outcome?

[mom cat]

2. The majority rules.There has already been enough compromise.

[Kire]

3. So why is it ESSENTIAL?

:popcorn:

[Thrasybulus]

4. To prevent the resort to violence to resolve different viewpoints.

I do not mean compromising one's personal beliefs, only in how those beliefs are accepted/rejected in the greater society. You should never give up on what you think is right but compromise is essential in accepting that the greater society is not always ready to accept our personal sense of right and wrong.

mom cat is right in that the electoral process is our means of coming to compromise solutions.

Take slavery. Had the South accepted Lincoln's election they might have maintained slavery within the South for several more decades before it's eventual demise.

As distasteful as it was, white Southerners saw slavery as a moral issue affecting their rights. They could not accept any compromise on the issue no matter how small. Violence was the result.

However, the Civil Rights movement under MLK was based on not compromising with the injustice of Jim Crow. Thanks to King the movement avoided violence and the bitterness that is violence's legacy and achieved unprecedented success.

I can accept uncompromising nonviolent efforts but once violence becomes entwined with righteousness you have preemptive attacks on other nations in "self-defense." Once violence enters in no one knows what the outcome will be.

[Kire]

5. so you're defending the slave trade?

what about World War II, would you want to just wait for the "eventual demise" of the Holocaust, or what?

Compromise goes hand in hand with violence. Without compromise, there would be no violence.

[Thrasybulus]

6. I'm using the example of the slaveholders

as paragons of the theory that you cannot compromise with others. I see the religious right as heirs to the moral certitude of the slaveholders.

We did nothing as a nation to interfere with the Holocaust until Hitler declared war on us. Not even Pearl Harbor caused us to intervene with Hitler's genocide.

Remember it is B* that used the the "Saddam committed genocide" argument as part of his justification for invading Iraq.

I can imagine many situations in which "Compromise goes hand in hand with violence" is true. Knowing when and what to compromise is the question.

Should those that oppose abortion as murder compromise? I don't think so, but they cross the line when resorting to violence.

Should those of us who support a woman's right to choose compromise? Absolutely not in my opinion but should we become violent if the new Supreme Court overturns that right? No.

Both sides can afford to compromise in the short term without giving up as long as we have an electoral system with integrity that allows for fair and honest debate.

Which leads us to where I agree that no compromise can be entertained. Compromise in the face of this administrations dismantling of our system of checks and balances through secrecy, packing the courts with political hacks, election fraud, etc., is not an option. If not checked, violence would be inevitable.