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Thats the Nuremberg defence “we were just following orders” and “we didn’t make the decisions”. Hannah Arendt nailed it when she saw Eichmann “evil is when goo
by sprafa 6y ago
Thats the Nuremberg defence “we were just following orders” and “we didn’t make the decisions”.
Hannah Arendt nailed it when she saw Eichmann “evil is when good men do nothing”.
- seesawtron 6y agoAs Chomsky always says "Unionize!". You can't unionize and rebel against the companies' policies when you quit. Quitting is the easier choice. Staying in the company AND refusing to do what's against your moral code of conduct. That might end up having you fired eventually but might shake things up.
- searchableguy 6y agoWhat does HN think of police unions now?
- GloriousKoji 6y agoI think that tech/dock/office/factory workers unionizing won't result in an increase of civilian deaths.
- laughingbovine 6y agoPublic sector unions and private sector unions are apples and oranges.
- nitwit005 6y agoEven if everyone with ethics refuses to work on something, you can still hire the people who lack ethics. There seems to be quite a lot of them. A broad refusal to work on something that requires local labor might work, but you can hire software people anywhere.
- metachor 6y agoSpot on. To quote Marshall Rosenberg quoting Hannah Arendt: In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, which documents the war crimes trial of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt quotes Eichmann saying that he and his fellow officers had their own name for the responsibility-denying language they used. They called it Amtssprache, loosely translated into English as “office talk” or “bureaucratese.” For example, if asked why they took a certain action, the response would be, “I had to.” If asked why they “had to,” the answer would be, “Superiors’ orders.” “Company policy.” “It was the law.” From Nonviolent Communication, page 19 on “Denial of Responsibility”. Sad to see there's a lot of office talk being used in this thread.