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Maybe this is a necessary evil in a day and age when a society is not all on the same page with respect to morals and values. It sure would be nice to have eve

Maybe this is a necessary evil in a day and age when a society is not all on the same page with respect to morals and values. It sure would be nice to have everyone proactively choose to act in a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, and maybe this did used to happen in more homogeneous/authoritarian societies? But without that synchronization it seems to fall to the legislative bodies to codify as much as possible of the various moral behavior which is very hard in practice and easy to exploit. This is hard to discuss with precision because there is a lot of subjective judgment involved. Cutting lines is not against the law, so should you do it to avoid wasting time waiting? Occasionally a rightmost lane is in practice used mostly for right turns, but marked as both straight and turn. Majority of people seem to understand it's a jerk move to block that lane for the turning traffic, so it's usually empty, but every now and then some greedy SOB takes it to overtake the herd. Personally I find this kind of thing despicable and do what I can to prevent it. I'm sure there is some evolutionary biology connection to fairness and why we behave/feel this way.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
>It sure would be nice to have everyone proactively choose to act in a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, and maybe this did used to happen in more homogeneous/authoritarian societies? Every society that I can think of that had that kind of homogeneity did it by marginalizing, often violently, the crap out of anyone who stepped out of line. No thank you.
greggyb 7y ago
> It sure would be nice to have everyone proactively choose to act in a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, and maybe this did used to happen in more homogeneous/authoritarian societies? But without that synchronization it seems to fall to the legislative bodies to codify as much as possible of the various moral behavior which is very hard in practice and easy to exploit. I suggest you read into the history of common law as it pertains to the history of legal practice in the UK and many of its former colonies. It is still strong today in both the US and the UK, though I am not familiar with other commonwealth nations. In a common law legal system, laws are discovered through trial rather than ordained by legislation. Precedent is built through case law. This is a system that is all about the "spirit" of the law.
josinalvo 7y ago
> a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, Rather, I'd say the spirit of some of the laws and rules. Most laws and rules are worthy, in that if everyone respects them, everyone is better off. They are positive sum. Those need to be followed. But arbitrary, explicitly defined games might be gamed at the same time.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

>It sure would be nice to have everyone proactively choose to act in a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, and maybe this did used to happen in more homogeneous/authoritarian societies? Every society that I can think of that had that kind of homogeneity did it by marginalizing, often violently, the crap out of anyone who stepped out of line. No thank you.

greggyb 7y ago

> It sure would be nice to have everyone proactively choose to act in a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, and maybe this did used to happen in more homogeneous/authoritarian societies? But without that synchronization it seems to fall to the legislative bodies to codify as much as possible of the various moral behavior which is very hard in practice and easy to exploit. I suggest you read into the history of common law as it pertains to the history of legal practice in the UK and many of its former colonies. It is still strong today in both the US and the UK, though I am not familiar with other commonwealth nations. In a common law legal system, laws are discovered through trial rather than ordained by legislation. Precedent is built through case law. This is a system that is all about the "spirit" of the law.

josinalvo 7y ago

> a way that matches the "spirit" of the law or rules, Rather, I'd say the spirit of some of the laws and rules. Most laws and rules are worthy, in that if everyone respects them, everyone is better off. They are positive sum. Those need to be followed. But arbitrary, explicitly defined games might be gamed at the same time.