4 ms·

Yeah sure, but how? It's not like you can pass a law one day and the next the values of every person in the country will have changed. In my experience values

Yeah sure, but how? It's not like you can pass a law one day and the next the values of every person in the country will have changed. In my experience values drive law more than law drives values. Marijuana has been illegal for some 40 years (or more!) in the US but that didn't make everyone think it was bad. And now the fact that so many people are unconvinced that marijuana is bad is changing the laws and it's being legalized all across the US. Critical theory is fine but "trying to fix the system" implies that there is some method by which the system can be fixed other than "everyone has to just grow up" since I don't foresee an "everyone must grow up" law being terribly successful. EDIT: Let me state that I don't necessarily think the current state of affairs is OK, just that it's a fairly intractable problem that won't get solved quickly. I can figure out what's wrong with my car and install replacement parts. I can figure out what's wrong with society but there aren't any replacement parts.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago
Not to mention, the only system I can think of where competition, which is what we're really talking about, was systematically eliminated was the USSR and other implementations of communism, which were both economically and socially a disaster. There's a lot of feel good stuff when we talk about fixing things, but the "thing" that needs to be fixed is sometimes a feature and not a bug. The USSR is also a good example, especially with women's rights. There was a top-down equality decree without any sort of legitimate social movement. In practice, women in the USSR, outside of propaganda, were treated poorly and once the USSR fell, Russians just naturally fell into their deep patriarchal views which are mainstream there. If anything, women have it worse in modern Russia because of the USSR's heavy handed idealistic decrees.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

Not to mention, the only system I can think of where competition, which is what we're really talking about, was systematically eliminated was the USSR and other implementations of communism, which were both economically and socially a disaster. There's a lot of feel good stuff when we talk about fixing things, but the "thing" that needs to be fixed is sometimes a feature and not a bug. The USSR is also a good example, especially with women's rights. There was a top-down equality decree without any sort of legitimate social movement. In practice, women in the USSR, outside of propaganda, were treated poorly and once the USSR fell, Russians just naturally fell into their deep patriarchal views which are mainstream there. If anything, women have it worse in modern Russia because of the USSR's heavy handed idealistic decrees.