https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=5J3P3M9igsU
Terry Butler who was a labor is a labor frontbencher said I’m agnostic people are inherently valuable because they are people and No That doesn’t work out very it’s it’s it’s a it’s one of those one-minute answers except It’s actually only ten seconds because you can you you can make the opposite argument and people do all the time You know like the Club of Rome for example Which was an organization in Rome logically enough Formed in the 60s was very much concerned about the terribly detrimental Effect that human beings were having on the planet And I believe it was one of the club of Rome members who coined the idea and if it wasn’t it was someone who was thinking Exactly the same way so works out either way that human beings were something Approximating a cancer on the planet you know because of all the terrible things we were doing Ecologically and so forth that was back when people believed we were going to overpopulate The planet to such a degree by the year 2000 that there would be widespread privation and starvation which by the way if you haven’t noticed there isn’t And and you know if you look at the terrible things that people do apart from the Despoiling of the natural environment. Let’s say there’s all the you know malevolence that’s associated with human interactions and also human social systems and It isn’t so obvious as a consequence of that that you can make a straightforward case that Human beings are inherently valuable merely because they’re human beings because you can eat make an equally Logical case from first principles that they’re inherently well destructive or that they should be perhaps limited in their ability to procreate or that they are a catastrophe for the planet as a whole or that our entire history is nothing but a sequence of What would you call unrequited malevolence and that people generally can’t be trusted so I don’t find that answer particularly satisfying I think it’s a it’s a It’s it’s just self-referential people are inherently valuable because they are people it’s like well You don’t really get anywhere with an answer like that So so she’s agnostic and and then and but then she has this idea despite her agnosticism That you can make the case a priori with nothing Buttracing it that people are somehow inherently valuable and it seems to me that that requires a Little more depth and a little more explanation for it to actually be convincing You know it’s like it’s not obvious to me that people themselves think that they’re valuable all the time often They don’t think that at all. They don’t certainly don’t think that often when they’re depressed. They certainly don’t think that when they’re suicidal They don’t really think that when they’re ashamed or guilty or frustrated or disappointed or angry or waking up at three in the morning And tormenting themselves with their consciences They don’t necessarily think that when they’re fighting with their family or when they’re upset at work or you know when things go wrong in life and so It’s not so bloody obvious that people are inherently valuable And and then you might also notice that it’s kind of easy to think that some people are more valuable than others Sort of like an animal farm. You know where the animals were all equal except that some animals were more equal than others But it’s very easy for human beings to think that about other human beings because no matter where you look in human societies There are rank orders of value right in in any hierarchy that we produce that’s associated with some ability We find that some people are so much better at whatever it is that they’re doing that It’s an absolute miracle and most people are absolutely dreadful at it And so, you know if you were thinking about inherent value as something associated with with with an approximation of skill or Competence then it wouldn’t be obvious from the structure of the world that people were inherently valuable in that manner either because there’s such a rank Order difference in our ability to do things, you know And you might say well that kind of averages out across things, but I don’t think that’s a very strong argument either So so it’s not it’s bloody well not obvious. I’ll tell you it’s not obvious Where this idea that people are inherently valuable came from that’s a tough one you know and and and in and in and in aristocratic states or or Tyrannical states it’s certainly not obvious at all that there’s any acceptance of the notion that people are inherently valuable It’s like there’s no necessary presumption of innocence for example And you don’t have any sovereign right to your own destiny like you’re not granted the rights Not granted because that’s the wrong way of thinking about it that your rights as a sovereign individual Who has the responsibility and the capability to determine the destiny of the state itself? Don’t exist that doesn’t exist as a concept And so I don’t see that there’s anything there that speaks of inherent value either So it’s by no means an obvious concept in fact I think it’s one of the least obvious concepts that human beings have ever come up with that each of us in some strange manner is is Is to be attributed some divine spark Let’s say that makes us equal in some fundamental way before God you know before the reality of the universe itself even in relationship to our own laws, I mean If you want a miracle for an idea, that’s that’s I can’t think of one that’s that’s more Unlikely than that so I’ve been puzzling over that for a very long time because I cannot understand why in the world That idea ever came to be or how in the world we ever agreed to act as if it was true It’s really something and we should let that go with we let that idea go to our great peril It’s a fundamental remarkable fundamental idea And what’s so interesting about it too is that once you have that idea? Weird as it is and improbable as it is and you start to organize your Social relationships in accordance with it well, then they work You know so my rule too is treat yourself as if you’re someone responsible for helping and it’s sort of predicated on the idea that regardless of your Inadequacies and your malevolence which you know I’m sure you have many inadequacies and no shortage of malevolence just like everyone else Regardless of that you have a moral obligation So that would be a responsibility to assume that despite all evidence that there’s actually something of intrinsic worth about you and that as a consequence your duty bound to treat yourself like that is true