US Citizens: Please vote tomorrow

[JJB70]

The triumph of individualism has allowed for petty anarchy to go unchecked.

There was a time when such people would have been shouted at for being thieves and possibly locked up in the stocks in the town square to have fruit thrown at them.

We're so far removed from barbarism these days we forget it's the natural state to which humans revert.

The UK is a country with surveillance cameras everywhere and government intrusion in all sorts of aspects of life, yet simultaneous with a rather sinister surveillance state which is increasingly marginalising anybody not with the program we have a crazy permissive attitude to petty and not so petty crime. I'm screwed if I can figure that one out.

 

[watchnerd]

The UK is a country with surveillance cameras everywhere and government intrusion in all sorts of aspects of life, yet simultaneous with a rather sinister surveillance state which is increasingly marginalising anybody not with the program we have a crazy permissive attitude to petty and not so petty crime. I'm screwed if I can figure that one out.

Yeah...I've noticed that about the UK....how often nice cars get keyed for no reason other than jealousy.

 

[etc6849]

Can't we all just... stick to audio

 

[svart-hvitt]

Let me just throw in a more 'parochial' concept: the tragedy of the commons. If it isn't even possible for the people to share a resource without destroying it, it must have implications for what is possible in terms of government, the state and freedom of the individual.

In my local town there's one of these shared bike schemes which I thought was a fantastic idea when it was launched. But for reasons beyond my understanding, people vandalise and destroy the bikes or, with seeming impunity, smash off the solenoid-operated locks and steal them, riding them around in full view despite their distinctive appearance. Utterly pathetic.

But there's a weird undercurrent to it: instead of being angry at the people destroying the bikes, the locals seem to be more angry at the company attempting to run the scheme. The logic seems to be: if a company trusts people with valuable objects that aren't chained down, they must expect them to be vandalised. And then this makes the place look messy. How dare the company be so arrogant? And perhaps there's an element of anti-big business, too.

To me, this tiny example suggests that all the utopian concepts people dream up are flawed. If they're not explicitly factoring in the sheer selfishness, nastiness, vindictiveness, and warped priorities of a sizeable proportion of the population, then they cannot work. I don't even think that education or the social engineering of the BBC can do anything to change it.

What’s more interesting, is why such schemes work in one place, and not another place.

Social habits, institutions, must be understood and taken into account.

 

[watchnerd]

Can't we all just... stick to audio

Tubes vs solid state?

Digital vs analog?

Faithfulness to the original recording vs what you find subjectively enjoyable?

We can vote on those...

 

[JJB70]

Can't we all just... stick to audio

Why? This thread is in the other areas of interest section and although we're discussing matters of a political nature I'm finding it to be a really very interesting and enjoyable thread. So far we've managed to avoid name calling and ad hominem attacks, so long as it remains a discussions of ideas and positive in tone I think it adds to the board.

 

[SIY]

So far we've managed to avoid name calling and ad hominem attacks

Yeah, a jerk would say that!