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malthaussen

(18,507 posts)

4. I remember when Opus was running for President the first time...

Reply to Sherman A1 (Original post)

Mon Jan 2, 2017, 09:02 AM

Jan 2017

... he felt it necessary to take a position defending the 55 MPH speed limit. (It was a LONG time ago) So he was treated to the argumentum ad absurdum:

You favor the 55 MPH speed limit because it will save lives. Wouldn't lowering it to 50 save even more? Why not 35? 25? Manifestly, if the speed limit were 10 MPH, even more lives would be saved. But then, why not 0? Why allow driving at all, if saving lives is the object?

A gag, perhaps, yet one that raises a philosophical question central to society: how many deaths (and whose deaths) are acceptable for our convenience?

-- Mal

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