I’ve been a fan of Jacoby but the first morality is survival against enemies and protection of self and loved ones, especially children.

Those who proclaim to follow a higher morality than this are usually the first to go, unless of course it’s their child who’s in peril, as suggested above. It’s simply feel-good self-flattery to say otherwise.

The person who intends you harm is the one in the wrong; he’s given up any ‘right’ to your morality and the government that fails to try to protect its citizens gives up no ‘right to call itself civilized’; it gives up the right to call itself a government. Civilizations have the same duty toward self-protection as individuals. A civilization is the collective culture of a mass of individuals and for the same reason needs protecting.

To refuse to use the means necessary is narcissism and self-important posturing, a flaw your enemies don’t have.