Irrational laws made, rationalised, and justificated.

Dissident1
Dissident1's picture
Posts: 88
Joined: 2006-04-27
User is offlineOffline
Irrational laws made, rationalised, and justificated.

If I was to interview a group of rape victims, I could probably gain a great deal of information supporting the need to ban any form of sexual contact between men and women. I could prove that sex between a man and a woman was "harmful". Allow a law that contends that sex is empirically a harmful and immoral act, and some time to propagate it, and a vast majority of the populace would fall readily into agreement. Moreover, proponents would invariably argue that the law was established rightly, and those who dissented from such an opinion would be considered criminals.

For this reason, it is next to impossible for the average person to be convinced of the need to repeal a law. Once the law has been established, popular consciousness is compelled to justify and support it. Authority cannot be wrong, lest civilisation fall into chaos.

As time passes, more laws are made to support and validate the irrational laws of past generations. Emotions run high on many topics. Myths form regarding a subject and social bigotry takes hold. The "black market" effect, wherein underground movements continually violate legislative edicts, cause support to grow in order to suppress opposition.

Violence is a natural outgrowth. The use of violence to enforce laws causes a backlash, as the oppressed retaliate. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.


the_avenging_bucket
the_avenging_bucket's picture
Posts: 184
Joined: 2006-06-17
User is offlineOffline
Irrational laws made, rationalised, and justificated.

yes


Rigor_OMortis
Rigor_OMortis's picture
Posts: 556
Joined: 2006-06-18
User is offlineOffline
Irrational laws made, rationalised, and justificated.

No question about it...

But in the same way one could ban:
- electricity (can kill)
- guns (do kill)
- microwave ovens (cause cancer)
- drinking (cirrosis)
- smoking (lung affections)
- computers & electronics (hazardous radiation)
...and the list can go on.

We could ban civilisation. Heck, we could even ban ourselves... we hurt ourselves every day by breathing, eating, etc.

Inquisition - "The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on..."
http://rigoromortis.blogspot.com/


Archangel__7
Theist
Archangel__7's picture
Posts: 55
Joined: 2006-04-09
User is offlineOffline
Irrational laws made, rationalised, and justificated.

A bit tired here, though bear with me.

I had for some time considered that in a culture that abandons any fixed point of reference (absolutes) by which to measure all viewpoints, literally any point becomes the new 'extreme'. Or, more accurately, there are no 'extremes' as the term presupposes a "center" from which all else is objectively oriented. If we live in a relativist age of ideological vertigo, then yeah, I suppose the conditions you cite are in every way made possible, and the matter boils down to a perspectival battle between subgroups who align themselves with one view against others who are oriented to the opposing viewpoint, and no view is going to be dominant.

But then doesn't civilization presuppose some form of overrarching common standard? Hmm... the social contract perhaps. But while it certainly provides a formal mechanism by which to come to some set of shared values, it's not clear that any specific set of values are going t arise necessarily from that alone... say the hypothetical right to procreate, or human freedom?

Interesting thoughts. At any rate, I know I need to read up more on social theory.