2012 - time for civil libertarians to grow up or fade out

Hence, they agitate for greater rights to terrorist suspects (who are immediately identifiable) while ignoring the right to life of innocent people in the community. And they focus on the rights of people thrusting themselves into our immigration zone, while totally ignoring the rights of the more destitute whose places they are taking. This is a recipe for unintended cruelty – which is exactly where their mantra takes us.

In reality, no action is intrinsically bad or good. No principle is absolute. Matters are always context sensitive. Engaging in conflict that will result in the certain deaths of many innocent people is permissible to save many others and detaining suspects without trial is morally sound where it is likely to prevent innocent lives being lost.

The best way to deal with evil is to pulverise it. As we did (although far too late) with Adolf Hitler and should have in relation to the likes of Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. The good news is that evil is not transmittable. Ostensibly harmful acts are permissible if they are for the greater good.

The moral and political debate in relation to important societal issues must move on from not whether the end justifies the means, to what end we should be attempting to secure. In this regard, there can only be one answer. The ultimate end is to maximise net flourishing, where each agent's interests counts equally – even those who do not excite our emotions.

Each person must count equally in this equation because there is no logical or normative basis for ranking the interests of one person higher than another. An argument along the lines that 'I am more important than you' is inherently discriminatory and morally vacuous.

The insurmountable conundrum that civil libertarians need to address is if the end (measured in terms of net flourishing) does not justify the means, then what does?

The fact that they have no concrete end in mind shows that their retorts are simply deluded instinctive visceral responses. Unfortunately, like screaming children, no amount of proof is likely to sway them, but that does not mean we need to continue listening – 2012 will hopefully be a new dawn of moral and social enlightenment.