The fundamental rule of political analysis from the point of psychology is, follow the sacredness, and around it is a ring of motivated ignorance.Great. Remember it applies to *your* group too. Probably (evidence-based) it applies *somewhat* less to libertarians as they can't seem to find anything to find sacred...I know my own sacredness/purity scores are near zero on Haidt's questionnaires...and I seem to remember that being generally true of both libertarians and aspies (do I repeat myself?).
The interesting questions to me are ones wherein folks can identify their own sacredness, and point out the motivated ignorance around it. If you can't, and you're not an aspie...then you're missing something large.
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I haven't taken the particular "sacredness test" of which you speak, but I have spent the past few hours chewing on that thought, trying to think of what I might find "sacred". I am coming up empty.
If respecting liberty/not initiating force/ etc didn't hold up to make life better for everyone, I would dump it. And, I'm sorry if Hitler or Stalin doesn't think their lives are better if they aren't permitted to kill people they don't like, but their views are simply not of equal validity. (I have been scolded for telling other non-Hitler people the same thing about certain views they hold. Taxation is theft, even if you like it or benefit from it, and it is not OK. As one example.)
So, perhaps sapient human life is that which I consider sacred. But, people who are trying to attack me are sapient and I'd kill them if I thought it necessary to preserve my (or others') life. So, maybe it is just my life that I consider sacred.
But I can think of several circumstances where I might kill myself.
So, maybe it is my life, as long as it is within certain parameters, that is sacred.
But, I can think of situations where my life would be going OK according to those parameters where I might sacrifice my life for someone else ...
So, I just don't know.
Liberty is sacred to libertarians, above all else. You sacrifice several virtues for one mega virtue. As to the validity of that decision I leave it to the philosophers.
What are those virtues which are sacrificed for liberty?
Anon (and also Kent),
Haidt measures 6 moral axes. One of the axes has been renamed from purity to sanctity (or sacredness). While the libertarians certainly have an overarching moral concern for liberty...that's not the same as having sacredness around liberty. Two very different concepts.
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