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Reading back my comment, I probably should have said I have lost faith in "the law". In this context, I mean the idea of gun control, but it's just generally a

Reading back my comment, I probably should have said I have lost faith in "the law". In this context, I mean the idea of gun control, but it's just generally a feeling that there really is no one in control of (American) society at this point. Without getting into a whole thing about the context of killing other human beings and how that matters, I'll just say I know what you mean and say yeah, it's bad to kill people. I'm not talking about personal morality; I live by one that many people would probably find overly restrictive (I certainly do).

itishappy 2y ago
Great response, and you're definitely not alone there, that's why I ask! I too find that the intent of "the law" is noble, but it seems to collect hard edges in practice. > I'm not talking about personal morality; I live by one that many people would probably find overly restrictive (I certainly do). Well now I'm interested!
MaxBarraclough 2y ago
You might be interested in Bruce Schneier's take on trust and what prevents predatory behaviour. In his book Liars and Outliers he gives a taxonomy of 4 elements: law, reputation, morality, and security. Reputation and law are similar in that they're imposed by a community, but differ in that law follows a formally codified code, and of course the consequences imposed tend to differ. Morality is the internal motivation not to wrong others. Security describes physical/electronic measures that cause the predatory behaviour not to be practical in the first place, or at least raise the bar. Schneier's own summary: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/liars_and_outli_5.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/liars_and_out... A review, hosted on Schneier's site: https://www.schneier.com/news/archives/2012/12/liars-and-outliers-by-bruce-schneier-review.html https://www.schneier.com/news/archives/2012/12/liars-and-out...

itishappy 2y ago

Great response, and you're definitely not alone there, that's why I ask! I too find that the intent of "the law" is noble, but it seems to collect hard edges in practice. > I'm not talking about personal morality; I live by one that many people would probably find overly restrictive (I certainly do). Well now I'm interested!

MaxBarraclough 2y ago

You might be interested in Bruce Schneier's take on trust and what prevents predatory behaviour. In his book Liars and Outliers he gives a taxonomy of 4 elements: law, reputation, morality, and security. Reputation and law are similar in that they're imposed by a community, but differ in that law follows a formally codified code, and of course the consequences imposed tend to differ. Morality is the internal motivation not to wrong others. Security describes physical/electronic measures that cause the predatory behaviour not to be practical in the first place, or at least raise the bar. Schneier's own summary: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/liars_and_outli_5.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/liars_and_out... A review, hosted on Schneier's site: https://www.schneier.com/news/archives/2012/12/liars-and-outliers-by-bruce-schneier-review.html https://www.schneier.com/news/archives/2012/12/liars-and-out...