Lioba wrote:The fact that the behaviors we label as murder and theft during times of social stability are labeled as "self defense" and "survival" in others suggest that there is no absolute standard of morality. Morality is for those who can afford it.
Self defense is always seen as something different from murder. Their might be societies in which fighting for ones life is more usual than in others and the reluctance to kill is not so great. What really differs is the idea against whom I must act morally. People of my tribe, of my country, my race?
Self defense and murder are exactly the same if you talk about he facts of what was done. It's only when you judge the event on the purpose and the value of the result that there is a difference.
In some states in the US one cannot claim self defense if the attacker was not given a chance to flee. If someone has broken into your home and stands before you with a weapon and you kill the intruder you have committed murder if you have not paused to allow the attacker a chance to flee. In other states it's permissible to kill someone breaking into another person's unoccupied home. There's a case in Texas where a man on the phone to authorities tells them he is going to shoot two people breaking into a neighbor's home and then shoots them in the back as they flee and he was not charged.
This, I think, shows a vast difference in the morality of different regions as it is backed by law.
About the last sentence: that´s how it seems to work. But I personally am under the impression, that is it the other way round. The question for me is, if we can afford it to be immoral.
Most people I believe will naturally behave morally with regard to really antisocial behavior until circumstances push them to a position where there appears to be no real alternative. Only real deviants murder and steal for their general sustenance when there is a reasonable alternative.
There are subcultures within many societies where antisocial behavior is routine. Those subcultures are really not engaged with general society though. They're isolated in some fashion. Either they feel that society doesn't want them to be engaged, such as the case with gangs, or the feel that they don't need society, as in the case of the elitist white-collar criminals.