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Fish seller with lobster, archive image from 2018
Photo:
Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
Oh, the morale!
If we didn't have it!
Then, from an evolutionary point of view, we would not even be at the chimpanzee and gorilla level.
In them there is something like morality.
And even more so even the oldest evidence of pre- and early human life shows a multitude of indications of behavioral regularities that cannot be explained empirically, but also as cultural habits.
Unlike morality, life in a primate group just doesn't work - after all, you're not an ant.
Thomas Fischer, arrow to the right
Born in 1953, is a legal scholar and was Chairman of the 2nd Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice.
He is the author of an annually revised standard short commentary on the criminal code and numerous other specialist books.
Now many people think that "morality" is when you are a good person.
This is not entirely true, or rather only in a very abbreviated way: you simply left out the attribute "correct" or "good".
For morality in itself is neither good nor bad;
it is only functional or dysfunctional.
Morality is when people measure their own and others' actions against rules that do not consist of mere experience and probability, but rather formulate an ought and may and refer to higher-level norms.
It doesn't matter where the latter come from: from gods, from the essence of nature, from reason or from the rationality of social functionality.
It is always important that morality makes, implies and intends to "make sense".
Earthquakes and viral epidemics are not immoral;
they can neither be despised nor punished.
There's no point in blaming the sun for exploding in a few billion years, resulting in some really uncomfortably hot summers in this country.
So much for a global point of morality.
Of course, we know who and what is "immoral": When in doubt, always the other.
So the sin, the vice, the wrong purposes and wrong motives.
If you put it in such a general way, you will notice that a Nazi has one moral, a warrior of God another, a professional criminal a third and Joan of Arc a fourth.
This can be expanded at will if you read a few newspapers and visit online forums: There is no lack of morals.
One can approach morality by talking about the history of the term, or the history of efforts to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad morality, or by speculating about the cosmic origin of the certainty that vegans are better people.
The morals that are supposed to be at stake in everyday life are usually so clearly structured that they can be obtained directly from the gastric mucosa and do not require a detour via the cerebral cortex.
Man and machine
As we have read, the Environment Minister of the State of Baden-Württemberg has committed a negligent administrative offense by driving a motor vehicle on public roads, exceeding the maximum speed limit by more than 40 km / h, more precisely: on the federal autobahn 177 instead of 120 km / h. h drove.
The reason for this, the minister announced, was that he was in a hurry.
The publication of this confession shows that, even as a minister, one should seek advice from a specialist in submitting statements by the accused if things go wrong.
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Franz Untersteller (Alliance 90 / The Greens), Environment Minister of Baden-Württemberg
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
Can happen!
I know this on the one hand because I once imposed a number of driving bans, on the other hand because last year, without being in a hurry, I was the prey of a mobile measuring vehicle on a free, three-lane federal motorway with cruise control switched on and constantly relaxed 124 km / h The police were reminded of the morality of obedience by means of a month's driving ban and two points in the central traffic register (VZR), since I had slept through an unreasonable limit of 80 km / h.
Even in the age of the “lawn”, the VZR is still called the “traffic offenders index”, as it was when Dad hopped over the Ruhr Schnellweg in the Opel Rekord.
The Catholic part of Germany in particular is known to have a very relaxed relationship to sin.
However, only for their own purposes, so that the sinful minister has to suffer the full weight of the guilt torment.
In the last two days I have therefore read with pleasure a hundred moral ejaculations in which either the immediate resignation of the minister or the imposition of penal sentences for the lawn itself and at least a ban on cars that can drive faster than 130 km / h.
Hypocrite debunkers advance!
Green Minister is racing!
Finance Minister has overdrawn account!
Science Minister does not know the latest study!
You don't know: is driving just as bad as a summa-cum-laude dissertation on what you used to do in the local club?
Or less bad than blowing up 80 Afghans?
Or worse than noticing while doing the math that twenty thousand million euros are missing?
You can only answer such questions if you have a yardstick on which the liters of indignation, the kilos of guilt and the meters of morale can be clearly read.
In Germany, however, there is less of a shortage of such precision tools, the more the toilet paper and pasta are sold out.
Man and fish
Speaking of noodles: Have you ever had lobster in Malta?
To put it another way: have you ever eaten a lobster?
I don't mean the glass of lobster cocktail that is served as a starter at your best friend's wedding or at the »Bild« annual break.
But a North American-Maltese monster lobster, as bought by the healthiest people in the world at McDonald's.
Unfortunately, eating lobster has recently become a bit more expensive after, for example, in the state of Maine, as I have found in the specialist journal »Fischmagazin«, only 22,500 tons were pulled from the baskets in 2019.
I don't know what it looks like in Heligoland and Malta.
In any case, as investigated by Investigative Foxes, an "exquisite lobster dinner" costs 250 euros on the island, which is famous for its lobsters, mailboxes and freedom of the press, a little less than a decent Wagyu fillet steak in Hamburg.
In May 2017, an "ex-partner" and his ex-partner dined, which some popular press media find extremely immoral because, firstly, the ex-partner is accused of infidelity (at the expense of a parliamentary group, not the ex-partner!) , secondly, she is now Senator for Justice and thirdly, she was in Malta to take part in a mission to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean.
Saving refugees and eating lobsters is of course not possible, say the people of Hamburg through the mouths of important parliamentary groups and at least as important press organs, who should know because they showed a few photos of suspects to the landlord of an Italian restaurant in Elmsbüttel.
In fact, he recognized the ex-companion who used to eat there with the ex-companion.
Who knows: maybe a fish platter for two for 35 euros?
That is then without the lobster;
it goes extra.
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Thomas Fischer
About punishment: law and security in a democratic society
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We do not know whether the Maltese lobster was gilded;
we would be surprised at the price!
Let's take off a bottle of Greek wine for 80 euros, two aperitifs of 10 and two starters of 15, a dessert for the lady (15) and two espresso (10), plus a liter of good German San Pellegrino water (15), For the poor lobster, including side dishes and soups, only 80 euros remain, 40 per person. Question: Can you get that for the price near the Alster?
Perhaps it is worth mentioning that neither the press nor the police know anything about whether this sinful meal has anything to do with the allegations of infidelity against the ex-companion, not to mention irregularities of the ex-companion.
Apart from a few self-paid antipasti and penne rigate in Elmsbüttel, as far as I can see, no crimes have been proven so far.
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Anna Gallina (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Hamburg Senator for Justice
Photo: Georg Wendt / dpa
Of course, envy morality doesn't care.
The German moralist knows from the age before the terrible misfortune of the lock and shutdown, when he was in Malta and on mare nostrum in general, that you shouldn't eat lobster in Malta, but only sole from the North Atlantic or fattened scampi in garlic creamed mushrooms shared dry bread with the boat people, as has been German custom since ancient times.
human and animal
Incidentally, pets are allowed in the Senator's Italian "hangout"!
That might save her political head if she proves that firstly she knows this and secondly has already petted the head of an Italian dog (from the animal shelter, of course!) Or a feminist cat (sterilized).
Which brings us to the climax of the column: the complete failure of the Frankfurt judiciary (read: district court), which sentenced a man (!) To 30 daily rates of 65 euros for damage to property because he hit his neighbor's cat (!) With the Had fired an air rifle.
The district court had sentenced him to 70 daily rates of 230 euros for cruelty to animals.
On the morning of December 11, the forum for the SPIEGEL article on December 9, testifying to this, contained 530 comments from moral philosophers and animal experts.
I recommend reading it for a sleepless night;
you learn all sorts of things or at least deepen old knowledge.
For example, that it is completely irrelevant which conditions the offense of § 17 TierschutzG sets out.
There is a penalty for "torturing" a vertebrate.
Some animal lovers may know the term from § 225 StGB: According to this, anyone who "tortures" a child who is under his care is punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 10 years.
So far, relatively few cat lovers who occasionally inflict brief, sharp pain on their children or grandchildren have demanded that they be sentenced to six years' imprisonment for torturing wards.
more on the subject
Susan Neiman on her concept of man: "Similarities are more important than differences"
Rightly, as one must say: Because "tormenting" is not always "bodily harm".
It means inflicting prolonged physical or psychological pain or agony.
Those who do not "torture" can certainly "abuse" and will then be punished for bodily harm.
In the case of animals that are "not things" according to Section 90a of the German Civil Code (BGB), but to which "the rules governing things" are applied, things are a little different: those who let a turkey rot while they are alive while the delicious turkey breasts are bloody and heavy pulling the ground, "torments".
Those who behead them abuse them but do not torture them.
Animal abuse is not punishable as such.
It is property damage (Section 303 StGB) if the animal is a stranger.
Brings imprisonment up to 2 years or a fine;
that's enough for an air rifle shot at a cat, and the cat doesn't care whether you address it with "cat woman" or with "cuddle thing".
Now I don't want to complain today about the colorful bouquet of absurdities, violent fantasies, sadistic desires, curses and mere bizarre whims a forum about damage to property to a neighbor's cat throws into the world.
The fact that the eyes should be shot out of the judges goes easily from the lips of the cat mothers and best friends of their retrievers, supplemented by all sorts of distant chatter about the soul, the creature and the well-being of dear animals and the complete failure of the German judiciary.
The animal lover's morale is unsurpassed.
When everything is gone, the whole world is spoiled and consumed, 80 percent of species exterminated, the very last resources scraped from the ground, the oceans a warm garbage soup, then the faithful dachshund and the cream-colored angora kitty will warm our laps and hearts and definitely understand every word.
Pre-christmas
They will (hopefully) say: what's the point?
A non-smoker secretly smoked, a shoplifter secretly stole, a partner secretly cheated on her loved one, a pensioner secretly threw plastic waste in the organic waste bin.
A sack of rice fell over in China because he was in a hurry.
That could be left at that.
But it doesn't get that cheap these days!
A message has to have a moral, you learn that in the school newspaper, and that's how it stays.
Somebody's to blame
Your own guilt - or shall we say: your own responsibility - is hidden behind mountains of hypocrisy.
This is not new, it is part of the morale game.
Even so, it can be mentioned occasionally when it threatens to slide into madness.
more on the subject
The moral in politics: Why don't we come together in debates? By Marc Röhlig
The fact that large numbers of people are upset about the fact that a kitten was injured by a willful air rifle shot in Eppstein / Taunus, while at the same time it remains “controversial” whether 600 or 800 epidemic deaths per day provide enough space for the usual “contemplation” spectacle, sugar-eating and wrapping paper - With the best will in the world, it can only be explained with the help of the ICD-10 (International Classification of Mental Disorders) - a finding that may be emotionally relieved for a short time, but is of no use either, because the pharmaceutical industry is here quickly cannot take countermeasures.
It goes without saying that the three examples I have cited have no meaning of their own.
They gain weight through the grotesque disproportionate nature of the occasion and public moral expenditure, against the background of a recognizable grave crisis in public peace and social morality.
The few guard rails of this morality of rationality and peacefulness, which, however much in need of improvement may be in detail, work pretty well, are being destroyed by apocalyptists, panics and enemies: they are the law, democratic legitimation and the institutions and structures of public trust .
Down with morals!
Long live science!
I demand that environment ministers drive to the places of destruction at the highest possible speed!
I demand that Justice Ministers eat more lobster and distribute gold wristwatches to illegal immigrants!
Stray Cat Fight!
Everyone should talk to everyone 24 hours a day for a week: loudly, quietly, outraged by themselves and the ungrateful Nicholas.
Then they should sit in their stables with ox and donkey, be silent for four weeks and keep their feet still.
Schoolchildren should do what they want, pensioners should do gymnastics, opera singers hum softly and stock traders just shut up.
Alternatively, if you like, everyone could write a study on immunology - everyone as they can and may.
We'll talk about it next year.
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