Civilization

[forsyth]

If you want to be a civilization, not just "the good guys," the means matter as much as the ends.

A lot of that's because civilization doesn't really have an ends. There are goals, but civilization is an ongoing thing. Which in the end means there are no ends, just means.

Comments

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

I'm not diminishing anything as a tool. If anything, I'm trying to get people to pay more attention to the tools, because they're important and used more often than lots of the goals.

The point is, "end poverty" doesn't have an end condition. It's something you need to keep doing all the time. It's a matter of doing things in ways that don't result in poverty.