I vaguely remembered about 2% of this from history in school. :) I was struck by something in reading this. Growing up, I was led to believe that rules and laws ran the world. Follow the rules,...
I vaguely remembered about 2% of this from history in school. :)
I was struck by something in reading this. Growing up, I was led to believe that rules and laws ran the world. Follow the rules, obey the law, that's how you live and succeed.
It took me much of my life to realize that that is a lie. For the most part, it's who you know, how you network, and what strings you can pull. This is true from your career to the highest levels of government.
In more recent times, I find it irritating that people will say things like "But the Constitution doesn't allow that!" or "The Courts have ruled against this, so it can't happen!"
Frankly, that is unfortunately bullshit.
It's not the laws that make much difference at all, but what the people decide to actually do.
We ignore all sorts of laws on a daily basis - so this principle is true from the very pedestrian every-day scenario all the way up to things like Trump running for a third term. People would protest, but it could (if it were to happen) just manage to somehow happen and it's unlikely it would be stopped. Or maybe it would be.
But like the Venezuelans illegally and unconstitutionally deported — oh, excuse me, I mean the MS-13 gang members¹ — when people in power let things happen, they happen. Regardless of the Constitution.
It's how we're losing our basic human rights. Courts are taking them away.
And sure, some laws are enforced pretty strictly, like Driving While Black™…
But anyway. All that aside, the other thing that struck me was that yet again, history is made up of people doing people things. Stability for the nation, but also "what screws me over the least here" is what ended up happening.
But that latter point is also one reason I don't believe in time travel. The tiniest little coincidences often have breathtaking consequences. Articulating a thought differently at a critical time can change the course of history. We've seen it happen time and time again. And you can't predict those little chaos butterflies.
All of this with my personal struggles recently and today mean I enjoyed this article distracting me from things I need to work on (but fatigue is a factor there, too) and other topics I want to spend time and energy replying to. heh.
Sure, it's simplistic to say that if something's against the law then it won't happen. People break laws all the time and they're unevenly enforced. But they do matter to some extent. We can be...
Sure, it's simplistic to say that if something's against the law then it won't happen. People break laws all the time and they're unevenly enforced. But they do matter to some extent. We can be realistic without going all the way to nihilism.
People often think of revolutions that make permanent changes, but lawlessness is often temporary - after the riot is over, things will often go back to how they were. (Not that it's any consolation for the people harmed.)
Are we "losing our basic human rights" in a permanent way? I don't know which rights you're referring to, but it doesn't seem obvious, and it depends on which ones you're talking about. Abortion rights in the US sort of fit that description, but it depends on which state you mean, and that fight isn't over.
<noise> I started reading daychilde's comment. Tought to myself 'this is a lot of american politics, did daychilde post this?' Scrolled up, noticed that I was correct. Scrolled down, saw a reply,...
<noise>
I started reading daychilde's comment. Tought to myself 'this is a lot of american politics, did daychilde post this?' Scrolled up, noticed that I was correct. Scrolled down, saw a reply, thought to myself 'could it be a skybrian political fight with daychilde?'. Yep. It sure was :)
You lads love a good tussle over this topic huh...
</noise>
I vaguely remembered about 2% of this from history in school. :)
I was struck by something in reading this. Growing up, I was led to believe that rules and laws ran the world. Follow the rules, obey the law, that's how you live and succeed.
It took me much of my life to realize that that is a lie. For the most part, it's who you know, how you network, and what strings you can pull. This is true from your career to the highest levels of government.
In more recent times, I find it irritating that people will say things like "But the Constitution doesn't allow that!" or "The Courts have ruled against this, so it can't happen!"
Frankly, that is unfortunately bullshit.
It's not the laws that make much difference at all, but what the people decide to actually do.
We ignore all sorts of laws on a daily basis - so this principle is true from the very pedestrian every-day scenario all the way up to things like Trump running for a third term. People would protest, but it could (if it were to happen) just manage to somehow happen and it's unlikely it would be stopped. Or maybe it would be.
But like the Venezuelans illegally and unconstitutionally deported — oh, excuse me, I mean the MS-13 gang members¹ — when people in power let things happen, they happen. Regardless of the Constitution.
It's how we're losing our basic human rights. Courts are taking them away.
And sure, some laws are enforced pretty strictly, like Driving While Black™…
But anyway. All that aside, the other thing that struck me was that yet again, history is made up of people doing people things. Stability for the nation, but also "what screws me over the least here" is what ended up happening.
But that latter point is also one reason I don't believe in time travel. The tiniest little coincidences often have breathtaking consequences. Articulating a thought differently at a critical time can change the course of history. We've seen it happen time and time again. And you can't predict those little chaos butterflies.
All of this with my personal struggles recently and today mean I enjoyed this article distracting me from things I need to work on (but fatigue is a factor there, too) and other topics I want to spend time and energy replying to. heh.
¹ 🙄
Sure, it's simplistic to say that if something's against the law then it won't happen. People break laws all the time and they're unevenly enforced. But they do matter to some extent. We can be realistic without going all the way to nihilism.
People often think of revolutions that make permanent changes, but lawlessness is often temporary - after the riot is over, things will often go back to how they were. (Not that it's any consolation for the people harmed.)
Are we "losing our basic human rights" in a permanent way? I don't know which rights you're referring to, but it doesn't seem obvious, and it depends on which ones you're talking about. Abortion rights in the US sort of fit that description, but it depends on which state you mean, and that fight isn't over.
You lads love a good tussle over this topic huh...
</noise>
This counts as a fight? Sheesh. :-)