A Look at "some Moral Minima"

Humans make moral decisions every day. Some are vast, and some are unimportant. Many people make right decisions, many make wrong ones. Is it possible that some decisions are just simply wrong no matter what? Is our world directed by an ethical code of morals? In some “Moral Minima” Goodman looks at many areas of morality and relativism suggesting that there are some acts in life that are morally and ethnically wrong.

The first subjects that were addressed were genocide and famine and germ warfare. According to Goodman, genocide is uglier than murder because it targets “individuals as members of a group, seeking to destroy a race, a culture, a linguistic, or ethnic identity, even a class.” (Goodman, 2010 The Good Society, pg.88) Genocide is defined as the intent to destroy. And this is morally wrong. No human being has the right to intentionally seek out a group based on their racial, ethical, or religious group and commit harmful acts. Among genocide, artificial famine is also an immoral act. Josef Stalin orchestrated this kind of famine that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainian peasant farmers. I agree with Goodman that “wholesale murder is wrong, then, not just for its scale but for willfully negating individuality, typing its victims and stirring hatred against the putative failings of the type.” (Goodman, 2010, pg.89)

Germ warfare was used to eliminate enemies during World War II. The decisions made by Nazi political groups are examples of relativism. They believed their choice to eliminate and destroy Jewish people was the right and moral way. Just as Jewish people today in the Middle East feel it is right and moral to eliminate and destroy the Palestinian people. Again, it is not morally right to target a group of people because of their religion, it is wrong and immoral.

Terrorism, not all terrorism is set up in a way as Goodman says, “to kill or die for”. When hear the word terrorism, or to be terrorized by a particular group of people as an American the first group of people that come to mine is the Klu Klux Klan. This horrific American-born terrorist group did not want to “die” but was all for killing. Goodman states, that “terrorism is willful targeting of non-combatants, aiming to intimidate and attract attention.” The KKK definitely attracted attention and intimidated many African Americans. These hooded vigilantes terrorized, killed, bombed and threated innocent Americans throughout the south for many years. Many of the KKK members went uncharged and unpunished for their hate crimes against American citizens. Many Americans focus these days solely on terrorism being related to middle eastern, not seeing that terrorism lived within our country in a horrible, immoral state for many years. Also, Goodman speaks of child soldiers being kidnapped and forced to commit acts of war crimes. These acts are common among the in places like Columbia. According to the Council on Foreign Relations,