My Neighbour’s Pool -
Let me share with you my current WISH LIST. I wish my neighbor would not put in a swimming pool. My neighbor has teenage boys and I am just dreading the pool all day and late night pool parties. There go my quiet summer weekends.
I know I will never convince my neighbor NOT to put in that pool. It would be doubly hard to make such an argument if I had a pool of my own (which I do not by the way). But imagine trying to convince someone not to do something you have done for yourself, because it would be inconvenient for you. Wouldn’t that be the height of hypocrisy?
Next on my current Wish List is that I do NOT want Iran and North Korea to have nuclear weapons. I know that is not in the same league as my issue with my neighbour’s pool but give me a moment to make my point.
If I do not have the right to prevent my neighbour’s pool, do I have any moral or legal right to restrict another country from developing weaponry that my own country already has? Yes of course my neighbour’s pool is trivial and nuclear weapons are the extreme opposite of that spectrum. Especially when these countries are currently ruled by...well lunatics. But in a community of nations, as in my neighbourhood community, and as much as we would like to, where do we get the moral right to tell others what they cannot do in their own backyard.