PhilGoetz comments on Open Thread: May 2010 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Jack 01 May 2010 05:29AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (543)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 15 May 2010 04:13:37AM *  3 points [-]

Who thinks assassination is worse than war?

I could make an argument for it, though: If countries engaged regularly in assassination, it would never come to a conclusion, and would not reduce (and might increase) the incidence of war. Phrasing it as "which is worse" makes it sound like we can choose one or the other. This assumes that an assassination can prevent a war (and doesn't count the cases where it starts a war).

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 15 May 2010 06:14:58AM 0 points [-]

It seems to me that the vast majority of people think of war as a legitimate tool of national policy, but are horrified by assassination.