Number Six: A post caused by procrastination

So, there are a lot of things that I would be better off doing right now, but I haven't written a post for a while, so that's what I'm gonna do.

I just had a short discussion with my dad. It started off just as one about streaming movies 'illegally', but we eventually got into ethics territory. I'd previously talked to my two brothers about this and was very open to learning their views on it. They made good arguments on the basis of free information, but something still nagged me after that. Until today, I hadn't even realized what it was.

Now, I don't know if I'm very good at expressing what I think. At least not verbally, but probably not through writing either. I'll try anyway. I'm gonna start with the analogy of a lie. When someone lies, there is usually premeditation, and often times, in that meditation, people find a way to justify it. Like if you don't want your parents to know that your sick because you want to go to the movies, you can justify the lie by telling yourself that not letting them know that your sick will save them the concern. You can honestly believe that too, but that doesn't make telling the lie right.

In quite a similar way, watching an instant streaming movie needs self convincing. I know this because each person I've talked to about it has had their story straight about it. This brings me to the conclusion that they too had that moment where they thought, 'Now, is this right?' and a couple minutes later they told themselves, 'Yes, it's just information, and if I like it, I'll pay for it later.'

We've all seen the FBI warnings on videos, and those interesting little clips saying how watching pirated videos is stealing, but does that apply to movies without substance? My dad used the example of the speed limit to help further his opinion. Just like it is technically illegal for people to drive above the speed limit, it often isn't even a question (accept in instances like school zones, ect.) that you can drive over it. He says that this is alright, because it is more of a question of ethics than morals, but doesn't the bible (my source for moral values) say that we should follow what the government tells us to do? With that in mind, it is ethically and morally wrong to drive above the speed limit. Going with the flow doesn't make something right. It's like the old saying, if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

I digress, however. I think I've written as much of my opinion as I can without repeating myself. All I have left is to say is that thinking about how something that was wrong is right is definitely not the same as thinking about how something that was right is actually wrong. I say this because my dad pointed out how my idea of how thinking about something makes it wrong doesn't work, because if people hadn't breaken out of the flow of culture, we would never have accomplished black freedom or woman's rights. This isn't the same however.

But look at this all more critically and decide for yourself. Hope that made some kind of sense. =P