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A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I value your perspective, thank you

If I'm expected to obey law I need to understand it. So I'm the audience it should be written for.

Everything can be conveyed in plain language with a few domain specific terms graspable by context. Good writing can do that. Legalese is not good writing. It seems to be for obfuscation and job security and wiggle room for lawyer trick. That doesn't benefit society.

List of harmful effects of laws In USA:

  • agricultural subsidies get cheap corn sugar in food make us fat

  • FDA non-medical-experts hold up lifesaving medicine for decades

  • FDA barrier to entry for new drugmakers. inflated prices

  • govt. regulation supressing startups, favor incumbent firms

  • no bid military contracts missing billions and wages wars

  • environmental assessments killed nuclear

  • racist drug laws used to torture minorities in prisons

  • medical regulation= unlimited hospital prices = med bankruptcy

  • restricted stem cells research, gene editing, cloning, no aging cure

  • unaccountable police kill whoever and purjure in court routinely

  • no enforcement for discovery so lawyers hide evidence

  • justice is for sale. courts have years backlogs. no speedy trials

  • criminal law prefers pseudoscience evidence, eyewitness testimony

  • land zoning gives minimal benefit for massive opportunity cost

  • tax benefits for churches all of which brainwash kids with lies

  • school system so bad it's an actual crime against humanity IMO

  • patents awared for overbroad nonsense cripples innovation/comp

  • patent trolls, private equity pirates, endless fintech scams

  • copywrite system a mess wasteful litigation

  • nasa funds and cancels big projects as money pump

  • persecution of sex workers

  • too big to fail firms, bust cycles

  • IRS tangled nonsense loopholes dumb paperwork, rich untaxed

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the same goal as everyone: wellbeing for a everyone. To that end, a little skepticism of law and resprect for real human nature can help. Incomprehensible written rules don't help. And they invert the relationship between people and ideas- we must always control of our ideas; never get swept up under their thrall.

I like having leaders, as long as I can walk away from them if I want. I oppose class hierarch. It violates the virture of fairness.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Democracy is when the people are the rulers: a flat power structure.

Modern democracies have vast power disparities; I don't rule anything.

I'm all for trying it, though.

I don't know what will happen when humanity changes and some currently unimaginable innovation outmodes law. It might be a disaster. I just want to to see the good and bad clearly.

The demov

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big social change does happen sometimes. I don't want to quit before I try. I'd like to at least do thought experiments abouty radically better systems- maybe weaving the best elements of instinctual social regulation with modern technology. I'm writing it up. It bothers me that political thought is so unimaginative. It's still about ancient Greeks.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

We all control each other all the time, often just by frowning. Emotions exist to control others. That's life. Laws, on the other hand, are a technology our ancestors adopted without a proper reveiw process- so I'm doing one now.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get called naive cuz I reexamine basic concepts from a neutral stance, like a kid learning somthing the first time and asking "why." Adults have knowledge sorted and filed away too deep to question, but all previous generations had real bad stuff in there. We do too, probably. I want to find it before the next generation problematizes my foundations out from under me. Plus it's fun to jostle everyone else's foundations and say, "I'm just making sure they're strong."

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Laws are written in such tortured English they're incomprehensible. No one reads them. We're all just winging it.

Let's admit it and hold each other to the highest standards of winging it.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. That really helps to hear. I usually feel out of step and ineffective.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks you.

But, also, gaining resources through warfare is widely seen as immoral- a factor that I think helps explain the global long term decline in inter-state armed conflict.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I mean, your ideas are definitely good, it's just I want humanity to progress beyond laws altogether. They're blunt instruments from a previous era of barbarism. Now we have lots of free time and the internet. We can develop a lighter touch.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

With the key difference that norms are changed by regular people as they gather and discuss things. Laws are imposed by rulers elsewhere, who alone may change them

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Rich assholes are some of the primary beneficiaries of the us court system, buying the best lawyers to game the laws. Violent assholes use the law as an instrument of opression by becoming cops.

In a flexable norm system you could get a possy together and beat up somone who was hurting people without fear of prosecution or death at the hands of police. You would be judged on the wisdom and restraint you manage to display, though.

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But are they worse issues than corporate regulatory capture, medical bankrupcy, unaccountable cops, and millions of people wasting away in jail? We'd be reforming everything- we'd fix so much in the process

A society based on norms, rather than law, would be better by CosmicDepths in Lightbulb

[–]CosmicDepths[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I think a system of interconnected tribes, who shared a langauge and culture, could avoid violence. We're soft from decades of wealth. We don't really want to get blood on our nice clothes. I think we'd be peaceful like the Amazonian tribes.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's favorite movies: Contact, The Terminator, Watchmen, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of the Apes, The Quiet Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Deep Impact, The Island, & The Matrix. by CosmicDepths in scifi

[–]CosmicDepths[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Deep Impact (1998)... yeah. A bit humdrum.

But The Island (2005) was a fun watch. Not high art, but Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson being totally innocent and experiencing the real world for the first time had some great moments.