3 ms·

The mark of a civil society is laws without punishments. Low trust societies have to build in enforcement mechanisms for everything because if you don't, someo

The mark of a civil society is laws without punishments. Low trust societies have to build in enforcement mechanisms for everything because if you don't, someone will cheat you for the slightest advantage and life inside them is punishingly inefficient. High trust societies rely on people to do the right thing out of a sense of civic pride, decency, group cohesion or some other regulating force. Look at sports for example, the rules are written out in excruciating detail that account for the most unlikely of edge cases. What are the consequences of not following them? Well, outside of professional leagues, really nothing except people won't want to play with you. Why go to so much effort with the rules? Because the rules are what makes playing soccer different from playing rugby. They're what make the game the game.

badrabbit 6y ago
A rule that can't be enforced is not a rule but a suggestion. If people follow it is because they agree with it. Anyone can follow a rule when it is convenient, punishment exists to make sure people follow the rule when it is inconvenient. Without punishment, it is not "rule of law" it is "guidline of law"
kelnos 6y ago
> Well, outside of professional leagues, really nothing except people won't want to play with you. That's not true at all. In high school I was a soccer referee, for a recreational league. If you broke the rules of the game, I stopped play and the other team got a free kick. If you did something violent or egregiously dangerous, you got a warning or got ejected from the game. The league had policies around ejections; accumulate too many of them in a short time and you were kicked out of the league, usually permanently. I guess you can reduce that down to "people won't want to play with you", but that's a pretty significant consequence if it's a sport you enjoy playing.

badrabbit 6y ago

A rule that can't be enforced is not a rule but a suggestion. If people follow it is because they agree with it. Anyone can follow a rule when it is convenient, punishment exists to make sure people follow the rule when it is inconvenient. Without punishment, it is not "rule of law" it is "guidline of law"

kelnos 6y ago

> Well, outside of professional leagues, really nothing except people won't want to play with you. That's not true at all. In high school I was a soccer referee, for a recreational league. If you broke the rules of the game, I stopped play and the other team got a free kick. If you did something violent or egregiously dangerous, you got a warning or got ejected from the game. The league had policies around ejections; accumulate too many of them in a short time and you were kicked out of the league, usually permanently. I guess you can reduce that down to "people won't want to play with you", but that's a pretty significant consequence if it's a sport you enjoy playing.