[gentoo-amd64] Re: How To Play WMV (thread drift -slaveryware)

[Duncan]

Bob Young <byoung@××××××××××.com> posted 451ECA46.7090302@××××××××××.com,
excerpted below, on  Sat, 30 Sep 2006 12:49:26 -0700:

> I suppose it comes down how one values being technically correct versus
> what actually happens in the real world. Personally I tend to be more
> practical, but certainly the world needs people who stick to the exact
> letter of the law, as we do of course need some accountants and lawyers.

> That being said, I can't resist making the tangential and totally off
> topic comment that I think America  in general, has gone waaaaay too far
> toward the *exact letter of the law* side. Zero tolerance, mandatory
> sentences,  and just the general "climate" of the society [...]

Conversely, I tend to take things literally, be a letter of the law guy as
you say.  However, if I think the law goes to far, I'll simply call it at
that and choose whether I think that strongly enough to ignore it and face
the consequences or not.  If I get caught speeding, it's because I thought
the speed limit was in appropriate and weighing the consequences, chose to
ignore that law and take the punishment if I was caught and it came.

I agree with where you are headed, but don't think failing to enforce the
letter of the law most of the time is the way to fix it.  Rather, if the
law is too strict (and I too think it is), loosen it up.  Change the law
tho, not the enforcement thereof.

If only the enforcement is changed, what happens is that we get a
situation where everybody's breaking the law but few pay the price. 
That's a situation ripe for abuse, because /someone/ gets to choose who
the law /does/ get enforced on, and it's all too easy to play favorites,
due to skin color or wallet size (many would argue that's what's actually
happening today) or whether sexual or other favors were paid.

Actually, that's in effect what happens in nearly all
corporations/bureaucracies/governments/organizations of anything larger
than the 20-30 people that can effectively know each other.  There's a set
of written policies that it's impossible to keep to and keep up
efficiency/production/whatever, and a set of unwritten policies that you
break and you are fired/expelled/excommunicated/guantanamo-ized/whatever. 
The thing is, because everyone /has/ to break the written policies or get
left behind, what happens is that they become the formal reason for
termination or whatever, even tho everyone breaks them, and the real
reason was that the unwritten policy/rule/law/whatever was broken. 
Too-bad, so-sad, if you simply didn't understand that unwritten one.  You
were expected to just know it, even tho it wasn't written down anywhere or
specifically stated at any time.  As they say, not knowning isn't an
excuse.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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