We just had a spirited discussion of good dogs vs. bad dogs, sparked by reading a bunch of “Peanuts” cartoons.
“I guess a good dog has to do what its master tells it to do.”
(Oh! Too depressing of a conclusion to draw from any comic strip! I couldn’t let it pass without comment.)
“Well, what if the dog doesn’t have a master?”
“I dunno. But if it had one, then, Snoopy is writing that the good dog does nothing. But that’s not true because if its master was calling it and it did nothing, then it wouldn’t be doing what it’s supposed to do, so it would be a bad dog.”
(Good logic there, and awareness of paradox or dilemma).
“What if its master was a supervillain? Then what?”
“Well… hmmm…..”
“Then if it obeyed it would probably be doing something bad.”
“And if it didn’t then it would also be bad.”
“Yeah. So what would you do if you were a dog and you belonged to a supervillain?”
“I’d bounce on the bed, ka-boing, ka-boing, ka-boing! All night long! KA-BOING!!!!”
I was impressed by this answer to ethical paradox. Apparently, if he can’t bounce on the bed, it’s not his revolution!