[liberationtech] LT Digest, Vol 32, Issue 1

[Rand Strauss]

> Democracy's "law and order", ... is based … upon
> a) forcing other harmless people to do the bidding (of) the majority whim …
>     (which is in fact a false authority concocted purely and wholly out of thin air), or
> b) be thieved prisoned killed by such power and die.

There’s some truth to this, and a lot of fallacy.  But first:

"Law and Order" - this is more of a meme than a real thing.
We have a long tradition of refining and working to uphold and improve "Law".
But "Order" is completely subjective.
One source said the first known use was in 1844.
The phrase injects violence:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/law-and-order <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/law-and-order>
a situation in which the laws of a country are being obeyed, especially when the police or army are used to make certain of this
So you’re sort of setting up a straw man- one that invites coercion.

The truth is that Democracy has nothing to do with whatever kind of use of police the country has, or does not have.  It also has nothing to do with their legal system.  Democracy is a very broad idea about people declaring themselves to be a group and making the decisions together, whether by talking, voting, or choosing representatives that vote.

ALL authority is concocted "purely and wholly out of thin air".
Humans are free to organize ourselves.  All authority is either learned or invented,
just like all other human concepts.

Every human society is a combination of either tolerating rule-breakers, or forcing them to comply or ousting them.
Different communities and police departments have different levels of toleration and different standards.

Except this is the fallacy of the excluded middle.  https://www.thoughtco.com/false-dilemma-fallacy-250338 <https://www.thoughtco.com/false-dilemma-fallacy-250338>
In truth, Law is so complex because our simplistic rules are at best decent guidelines for judges.

We have other strategies:
look the other way
forgive
work with people to get them through their little tantrums, acting out, violations
give a small punishment so they find a better way to adapt, such as a violation that doesn’t disrupt the order, or gets their drug ring to avoid schools
there must be more, since I’m fallible...
It’s very, very easy to make a statement like yours.
It’s more difficult to suggest an improvement.
It’s even more difficult to research improvements and choose wisely.
It’s much more difficult to think for oneself and invent an improvement that’s sound.

The real challenge is implementing the improvement- fitting it into society and dealing with the edge cases, foreseen and unforeseen.

We traffic in so many ideas…  Mea culpa.
-r
I apologize- this is probably mostly reaction, and mostly reaction to other things...
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