The one has no direct bearing on the other. But if you expose a person that is already internally conflicted to a lot of stuff that is ethically questionable it may be enough to override the normal urges people have wrt self preservation.
Most people have strong moral convictions, but when placed in a situation where their whole future hinges on temporarily shutting those moral convictions down will happily do so. Someone that is unstable at some level could very well act them out because they identify with the basic injustice, even if that will end up hurting themselves.
I can see exactly what jacquesm is talking about here actually.
I think he's talking about instability as in issues with inhibition. Kind of like how people sometimes commit the stark crime of saying what you really think when drunk,
Manning might have taken an action that others merely only think about because that little part of you that says "BAD IDEA MAN" was asleep on watch at the time. If nothing else his "instability" would be consistent with his behavior at other times, before and after he joined the Army.
I would say it's something that makes you evaluate the difference between short-term and long-term good things (e.g. a policy that drives up income in the short term may wreck your business in the long term).
Or alternately, the difference between a good thing, and a good thing with collateral damage.
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The one has no direct bearing on the other. But if you expose a person that is already internally conflicted to a lot of stuff that is ethically questionable it may be enough to override the normal urges people have wrt self preservation.
Most people have strong moral convictions, but when placed in a situation where their whole future hinges on temporarily shutting those moral convictions down will happily do so. Someone that is unstable at some level could very well act them out because they identify with the basic injustice, even if that will end up hurting themselves.
So instability makes people more consistently act out their strong moral positions?
It seems to me that it would make someone behave more randomly
I can see exactly what jacquesm is talking about here actually.
I think he's talking about instability as in issues with inhibition. Kind of like how people sometimes commit the stark crime of saying what you really think when drunk,
Manning might have taken an action that others merely only think about because that little part of you that says "BAD IDEA MAN" was asleep on watch at the time. If nothing else his "instability" would be consistent with his behavior at other times, before and after he joined the Army.
So it's just something that makes you do good things more?
I would say it's something that makes you evaluate the difference between short-term and long-term good things (e.g. a policy that drives up income in the short term may wreck your business in the long term).
Or alternately, the difference between a good thing, and a good thing with collateral damage.
No, it is something that makes you do things that might end up with you in front of a firing squad or room&board for the rest of your life less.
Which could be good or bad or whatever, or a mix of both, or whatever. Seemed like a good idea at the time.