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Comment on On the US Declaration of Independence in ~humanities.history
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Comment on On the US Declaration of Independence in ~humanities.history
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
Fundamentally, it is building to an argument for the validity of independence in four consecutive points. Notably, whereas today, national independence movements often take it as a granted principle that a people ought to be free to make its own government, ought to be free of the domination of another people (the principle of self-determination), the Declaration assumes its reader thinks the opposite. It assumes a reader who accepts that monarchy and empire are both just and natural, for whom the idea of self-determination is at best dangerous nonsense. And that makes sense – almost none of the peoples in the world the framers knew were self governing (notable exceptions for the Dutch and Swiss). Instead, even when a people had their own country, they were ruled, rather than self-governing – by a king or a closed oligarchy (often a hereditary aristocracy), which often felt little if any cultural commonality with their own commoners.
That system was normal and indeed had been normal since antiquity: self-governing polities are very rare in the pre-modern period. It was not only normal, but normalized: centuries of literature and tradition supported the idea that the right and normal way to organize a society was through authority rather than self-governance. So the Declaration has to go to exceptional lengths to show why this monarchy and this empire have ceded any just claim to govern the colonies. In the process, however, it lays down the argument that leads to that modern assumption of self-determination.
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We should also note that what the Declaration asserts are not collective rights, but rather individual rights, an important component of liberalism, but an enormous break with most pre-modern social assumptions, which tend to be communal, rather than individual. Compare for instance the ancient Greek notions of autonomia and eleutheria – autonomy and freedom – which in a political sense were really collective rights, possessed by the polis. An individual Athenian did not really have any rights that the Athenian demos – the people at large – were bound to respect. By contrast, the Declaration is asserting that all men individually possess key rights, including the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ which is rather an expansion of Locke’s original “life, liberty and property” formulation – to me it includes not just a right to property but also a right to make one’s own decisions, to pursue one’s own goals, to not be a tool of the community. Again, this is a really radical rejection of the way most societies had been organized – as Patrician Crone notes, in pre-industrial societies, “the individual existed for the benefit of the overall group, not the other way around.” The Declaration asserts the opposite: the group (governments) exist for the individual.
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The Declaration was recognized as an incendiary, radical, dangerous document at the time. It was banned or suppressed in some European monarchies – not appearing in translation, for instance, in Russia until 1863 or in Spain until 1868; it was outright banned in Spain’s overseas colonies. And it isn’t hard to see why – the language and ideas of the Declaration, building on European political philosophy that had been ‘in the air,’ so to speak, for some time clearly played a role in the cultural foment that culminated in the French Revolution. A European monarch who worried that the publication of the Declaration might endanger their crown was right to worry.
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Which at last brings us to the bill of grievances. Given the above build-up, you can see why the list of grievances are necessary: the Declaration has tried to establish that if a government is sufficiently injurious to the natural rights of its people, it becomes permissible – even required by duty – for those people to abolish and replace it. But of course then they have to show that the government of King George III was, in fact, so injurious. It is an interesting and clearly deliberate choice to frame the grievances as an indictment against George III in particular, even though the framers knew as well as anyone that many of these injuries were the product of policy set by Parliament. On the one hand, George III could stand in for his government symbolically here, but at the same time, I suspect that part of what the authors of the Declaration are trying to summon rhetorically is the notion of ancient tyranny (thus their use of the word). Of course a tyranny could be of Thirty Men as easily as just one, but the designation of a singular tyrant-king lends the whole list a rhetorical punch. “He has…” is just a lot clearer and more effective than, “the King in consultation with his government and the full support of Parliament has…”
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So I provide below an annotated copy of the bill of grievances, with links to note where our current government is doing many of the very things for which we declared, 250 years ago, that it was not merely right, but a duty to throw off British governance. Of course today we have no need of revolution, because we have elections and so may freely change our leaders or even alter the form of our government without violence.
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It is also, importantly, a day to reflect on the United States, a country of ideas and values – not a nation of blood and soil. It is a day to think about what those ideals are and what we owe them, not in the fuzzy, gauzy, vague sense of flag waving and patriotic music (though those are fun), but in the hard, specific way of articulating what our country is for. And it can be hard: it is obvious to anyone studying American history that the United States did not at its inception live up to the notion that all men were created equal – the founders kept slaves and often behaved cruelly towards Native Americans. Their ideals were better than they were. And where the men failed, the ideals succeeded: the framers failed to abolish slavery, but their ideals eventually – fitfully, with too much delay and bloodshed – succeeded. Their ideals animated the movement for women’s suffrage – even when the Declaration was new, Abigail Adams could note that its principles must logically extend to all women, as well as all men – and the movement for civil rights.
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On the US Declaration of Independence
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Comment on US releases powerful Anthropic model Mythos to some US companies in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentOpenAI giving the government stock for free would not be a bailout. Unless there's money moving in the other direction. Maybe it's more like a bribe, but the question is what would OpenAI get for it.OpenAI giving the government stock for free would not be a bailout. Unless there's money moving in the other direction.
Maybe it's more like a bribe, but the question is what would OpenAI get for it.
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Comment on How to ask for help (in an academic context) in ~humanities
skybrian LinkFrom the article:From the article:
How do you ask for help from people? There is only one principle. Put yourself in their mind. All good communication is grounded in an understanding of the reader’s mind. And so, I have some heuristics I would recommend when you ask for help from people you don’t know.
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How to ask for help (in an academic context)
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Comment on Google must pay record €4.1 billion fine, top EU court rules in ~tech
skybrian LinkI wonder if the EU agrees with that. Will anything need to be changed?"In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 [...]"
I wonder if the EU agrees with that. Will anything need to be changed?
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Comment on What AI does to the minds of novice coders in ~comp
skybrian Link ParentPython started out fairly simple, but it's a pretty complicated language nowadays. Asking an LLM questions seems like a good source of hints as long as you don't trust the answers and verify them...Python started out fairly simple, but it's a pretty complicated language nowadays.
Asking an LLM questions seems like a good source of hints as long as you don't trust the answers and verify them another way.
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Comment on AI adoption and IntelliSense in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYeah, I used to use ORMs. Lately I've been using string concatenation to put SQL clauses together. As long as the actual input parameters are passed to the SQL driver separately using '?' it seems...Yeah, I used to use ORMs. Lately I've been using string concatenation to put SQL clauses together. As long as the actual input parameters are passed to the SQL driver separately using '?' it seems safe enough?
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Comment on AI adoption and IntelliSense in ~tech
skybrian LinkIf these queries are large in terms of the number of columns, but there's a pattern to them, I wonder if it makes sense to write code to generate the SQL somehow? My most recent project is a web...If these queries are large in terms of the number of columns, but there's a pattern to them, I wonder if it makes sense to write code to generate the SQL somehow?
My most recent project is a web app written in TypeScript that uses a Sqlite database. To enforce good layering, there's a database API and all the SQL is embedded in TypeScript files in the API's implementation.
Asking a coding agent to make changes to the database API for new features seems to work well. It doesn't always have good taste in API changes, though, so I'll ask it to propose a change and then make corrections, rather than just doing it.
I don't use GitHub copilot anymore and the edits I make using VS Code (rather than asking the agent to do it) are fairly rare. I'll use it to rename a symbol, though.
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian Link ParentWe're all one heart attack away from death. It doesn't mean you go around assuming you're going to die tomorrow.We're all one heart attack away from death. It doesn't mean you go around assuming you're going to die tomorrow.
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian Link ParentHaving grown up in the shadow of nuclear war, and the threat of nuclear war has never gone away, by this reasoning there's never been anything to celebrate in my lifetime? No, I reject the doomer...Having grown up in the shadow of nuclear war, and the threat of nuclear war has never gone away, by this reasoning there's never been anything to celebrate in my lifetime?
No, I reject the doomer mentality. Nothing is permanent. We all die in the end. Temporary wins are still worth celebrating.
Another example: it's okay to celebrate when a friend's cancer goes into remission, even though it might come back.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skybrian LinkI changed the front page of my personal links website from two columns to one. It’s roughly reverse-chronological order except that posts are grouped by subject. The groups are just tags that I...I changed the front page of my personal links website from two columns to one. It’s roughly reverse-chronological order except that posts are grouped by subject. The groups are just tags that I have pinned.
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian Link ParentWe clearly don’t have that sort of safety anymore with the US government, in any respect. Nonetheless, some dangers are of more immediate concern than others. With this ruling, babies being born...We clearly don’t have that sort of safety anymore with the US government, in any respect. Nonetheless, some dangers are of more immediate concern than others. With this ruling, babies being born in the US without citizenship rights became very unlikely to happen for at least several years. Beyond that, nobody knows what will happen.
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian (edited )Link ParentSince the majority disagreed with Kavanaugh, I don’t see that making a difference until years from now, after a justice resigns and another one is appointed? Hopefully that will be after Trump is...Since the majority disagreed with Kavanaugh, I don’t see that making a difference until years from now, after a justice resigns and another one is appointed? Hopefully that will be after Trump is gone. Who knows what happens then?
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian LinkResponses here seem rather negative. It's narrower than I'd like, but it seems to me that a 5-4 win is still a win and that's worth celebrating. It's one less thing to worry about.Responses here seem rather negative. It's narrower than I'd like, but it seems to me that a 5-4 win is still a win and that's worth celebrating. It's one less thing to worry about.
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Comment on $22,000 per hour: assistants use a legislative loophole to outearn US surgeons in ~health
skybrian Link ParentEven when most people are honest, some people gaming the system is to be expected. It seems like this system could be improved if Congress were willing. Ideally this would include regular reviews...Even when most people are honest, some people gaming the system is to be expected. It seems like this system could be improved if Congress were willing.
Ideally this would include regular reviews and updates. Why would we expect Congress to get a new law right the first time?
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Comment on US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article:From the article:
The ruling reaffirms the long-settled understanding that the 14th Amendment automatically confers citizenship on any child born in the United States, with limited exceptions for children of diplomats and other rare cases. The principle was established in a landmark 1898 high court decision that found that Wong Kim Ark, a man born to Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, was a citizen.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion for the ideologically mixed group of justices that included the court’s three liberals, as well as conservative Amy Coney Barrett.
Conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh dissented from the 5-4 majority in ruling the executive order violated the 14th Amendment, but he joined the 6-3 majority in finding the order violated federal law.
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US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Donald Trump's order
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Comment on US Congress clears housing bill, cementing a rare bipartisan feat in ~society
skybrian LinkJohnson sends landmark housing bill to Trump for signatureJohnson sends landmark housing bill to Trump for signature
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan bill aiming to address affordability by increasing housing supply and homeownership, can now either be vetoed by Trump or signed into law. Absent the president’s signature, the bill will become law with no action after 10 days not counting Sundays — around July 10.
“Their ideals were better than they were” seems like a remarkably optimistic way of putting things. Usually, when people point out a large gap between words and actions, they call it hypocrisy.