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In my experience it's not that people feel as though it's inappropriate to participate in political machinery. They believe that "politics" are inefficient and,

by ixtli 8y ago

In my experience it's not that people feel as though it's inappropriate to participate in political machinery. They believe that "politics" are inefficient and, as such, a waste of their time. I believe the incorrect notion that "politics" can (or should be) avoided is to blame here.

erikpukinskis 8y ago
Politics can be avoided. Instead of asking for the system to do something for you, you just find a way to achieve your goals by whatever means necessary. You just think of the law as a machine to be hacked. It’s illegal to sell raw milk. I could try to convince some legislators that it’s important (not likely) or just find a way way to operate a raw milk business that doesn’t involve sales. Some problems may be temporary insoluable, but I find I have plenty of problems to solve. No use worrying about the ones that are fundamentally at odds with statutes.
- ixtli 8y ago
  I accept this as an ideological position, though I disagree with it. I'm not sure this is the best medium to wade into the specifics but tl;r: I have found that the really interesting problems require working together with other people and sometimes to do so you must act against your own immediate self interests. I also think this type of extreme individualism starts to fall apart when someone starts to act in a way that causes you or others indirect harm and you want to get them to stop. That said laws are the programming language of our society! People should never imagine them to be anything else. I think, and I don't mean this in an aggressive way, that when you talk about "hacking" laws you're simply engaging in politics :) Albeit with a starkly different ideological grounding and aesthetics. The reason I put that word in quotes in the comment you responded to was to imply suspicion about reductive definitions of the term that seem to categorize it only as "something that happens on the senate floor."

by ixtli 8y ago

erikpukinskis 8y ago

Politics can be avoided. Instead of asking for the system to do something for you, you just find a way to achieve your goals by whatever means necessary. You just think of the law as a machine to be hacked. It’s illegal to sell raw milk. I could try to convince some legislators that it’s important (not likely) or just find a way way to operate a raw milk business that doesn’t involve sales. Some problems may be temporary insoluable, but I find I have plenty of problems to solve. No use worrying about the ones that are fundamentally at odds with statutes.

ixtli 8y ago
I accept this as an ideological position, though I disagree with it. I'm not sure this is the best medium to wade into the specifics but tl;r: I have found that the really interesting problems require working together with other people and sometimes to do so you must act against your own immediate self interests. I also think this type of extreme individualism starts to fall apart when someone starts to act in a way that causes you or others indirect harm and you want to get them to stop. That said laws are the programming language of our society! People should never imagine them to be anything else. I think, and I don't mean this in an aggressive way, that when you talk about "hacking" laws you're simply engaging in politics :) Albeit with a starkly different ideological grounding and aesthetics. The reason I put that word in quotes in the comment you responded to was to imply suspicion about reductive definitions of the term that seem to categorize it only as "something that happens on the senate floor."