- "If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable."
The speaker asserts that if a goal is worthy then any means of attaining that goal is justifiable. In my point of view this extreme position misses the point. In fact, we need to weight a goal by take into consideration both the benefits and costs, or harm. If the goal is really worth and benefit for both personal and societal, we can do our best to achieve it.
However, although some goals are worthy indeed, it does not mean that one can attain it by any means. In the process of attaining these goals, people such as political leaders and others should root in their minds that they can do nothing to harm the welfare of other people. That means we cannot do as the adage says "One general achieves renown over the dead bodies of ten thousand soldiers".
In business, the goal of maximizing profits and minimizing costs and expenses cannot be attained by illegal means or at the expense of social well beings. For example, it is unjustifiable for an enterprise to improve its profitability by releasing poisonous water into rivers.
Although I disagree that any means taken to attain it is justifiable, it doesn’t means that we cannot sacrifice or endure highly cost to achieve a goal. Believe it or not, sacrifice or endure highly cost sometimes is the only way to achieve the benefit goal. It just like the proverb said "one cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs”. When we playing chess, we know that our final goal is to win the game, therefore, some time we need to sacrifice our chessman to establish a better situation. Since sacrifice a chessman is a highly cost during playing, but if the goal is worthy and it can lead to a victory situation, we can sacrifice it, because this means is justifiable. It is the same principle in our life.
For example, during World War II, German booming destroyed the center of the city Coventry. On the night of 14-15 November 1940, rather than compromise a decisive source of intelligence, Winston Churchill left the city of Coventry to the mercies of the German Air force. Winston Churchill and colleagues had cracked the Inigma code at Bletchley House and knew that Coventry was to be bombed. Winston Churchill said and did nothing because it was too late to start any preparations and if the Nazi knew their Inigma code had been decrypted and changed the encrypt method, much more valuable information might lost. Churchill knew his goal was to achieve the victory and brought the world peace. Therefore, we can forgive his decisions to sacrifice the city of Coventry.
In addition, when we try to cut down the let of CO2 to stop the global warming, many governments must pay much money and may harm a lot of people's benefit. But it is surely benefited for the world, and also, our offspring.
In sum, the speaker begs the question. The worthiness of any goal, whether it is personal or societal, can be determined only by weighing the benefits of achieving the goal against its costs -- to us as well as others.