Blackfish documentary on CNN - anyone else watch it?

[FireIceTalon]

I mention the perception of good because I believe your views of society as a right/wrong based ideology are overly simplistic and completely jaded by your beliefs of altruism.

Um, at what point did I ever state my view of society is based on right/wrong, or even ideological at all? As a Marxist, "ideology" is a dirty word to me, because all it is, is an expression of ruling class interests or values. Ideology is just another term for 'false consciousness'. Secondly, my view of the world has absolutely NOTHING to do with altruism - I don't know where you got this idea from but there is no correlation there at all. Altruism is a product of capitalist, or probably even pre-capitalist society, and has no bearing whatsoever on my "beliefs". In fact, in a classless society, altruism would disappear entirely as a natural consequence of radically different existing social relations. Socialism and altruism have nothing to do with one another, unless you are talking about some type of 'utopian socialism' maybe; but I'm no utopian socialist by any measure.

I feel we as a race do things for self preservation above all else, and greed is just a part of that.

But clearly, competition is much more threatening and destructive to our self-preservation than cooperation is. Greed has nothing to do with it - it is just a natural consequence of capitalist society and its culture of consumerism, and commodity fetishism. I think you are oversimplifying things here, or just parroting bourgeois rhetoric. Greed and self-preservation need not go hand-in-hand. Does a single mother on welfare collect money from the state because she is greedy, or because she is making a rational economic decision available to her as a means to provide for her and her children?

In the case of these captured animals, I don't see a "right" or "wrong"; I see someone trying to preserve his/her way of life through profits on one side, and I see another comparing the way animals feel with the way humans feel as a way to try and understand what the animal might be going through (rather it's true or not) to justify a cause.

Its not just a question of ethics or fairness, its also a question of safety - for both the animals and people involved. There is a right and wrong here.

Is one belief "right" and the other "wrong"? I don't believe there is any such thing, only the compelling urge to do what we feel is "correct" for our own lives.

No man. Right and wrong do exist. If that weren't the case, we would have gone extinct long ago. You have totally bought into this whole culture of 'social darwinism/rugged individualism'....

I try not to confuse morality with self preservation because, as I said, there is no true altruism; when you look at the world through my eyes, people stop looking so selfish, and you begin to understand exactly why people do what they do.

It's almost impossible to confuse morality with self-preservation. One is a subjective set of values, the other is the epitome of rationality. But yes, self preservation does not necessarily equate to selfishness. And yes, I have a very solid understanding of why people do what they do (most of the time). Also, I don't think there is any question that altruism has indeed existed as an objective social phenomena for millennia now. I think philosophical questions of why it exists or should it exist are more relevant in understanding human behavior.

I should mention that as it so happens, a majority of us do agree on some "correct" concepts and establish the rules and laws we currently live by.

You mean laws made by and for a property owning class to protect said classes interests, aka rule-of-law?