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From: gadfly@ihlpa.UUCP (Gadfly)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Poor People/Lazy People
Message-ID: <2021@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Oct-86 09:50:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.2021
Posted: Fri Oct 10 09:50:12 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 07:02:34 EDT
References: <1010@cad.cs.cmu.edu> <1050001@hpspkla.HP.COM>
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Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 30

--
> >The question is not whether these shiftless and lazy (didn't you forget
> >"dirty"?) folks have a claim on your wealth.  The question is whether
> >you have obligations to people you don't even know.  If you've got
> >any semblance of ethics in your yuppie, designer brains you know that
> >you *do* have such obligations. [...]
> 
> Okay, Ken. You're on.
> 
> Why not let us in on what _your_ ethical system is that demands this
> obligation? I'm not arguing the obligation; I am curious to hear to
> your justification.

*My* ethical system that demands "this obligation"?  You say this as if
it had to be some bizarre cultist dogma.  I'm a Jew, and my religion
specifies 613 obligations in some detail.  Some of these are obligations
to my family, to my friends, to my community, and to G-d.  If you're
interested in these duties, all of which derive from Scripture, there
are some good translations of Maimonides around.  He lived and wrote in
the 12th Century, and it's interesting to see how he tried to justify
Torah with Aristotle.  I am not a very observant Jew--I do not even try
to fulfill most of those obligations--and I am an incomplete (or if you
prefer, "worse") person for not doing so.

                    *** ***
JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
                 ****** ******  10 Oct 86 [19 Vendemiaire An CXCV]
ken perlow       *****   *****
(312)979-8042     ** ** ** **
ihnp4!ihlpa!gadfly  *** ***     <== NOTE NEW ADDRESS!