I guess our difference (well, ok, *one* of our differences) is that I believe our morality is hardwired, not programmable to any great extent. You can mandate whatever the hell you want, but if enough people disagree with the mandate, it will be ignored or repealed. And then there will be the inevitable backlash.
--Doug On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> wrote: > (Somehow an earlier message of mine got lost in cyberspace.) > > I said that you *can* force people to do the right thing, and used the > civil rights movement as an example. I often used to hear "You can't > legislate morality" which is true, but you can legislate behavior. If you > make the penalties for not behaving well strong enough, people start to > behave well. Pretty soon it becomes the norm. Did racism go away? Of course > not. But those penalties--whether social or legal--against racist behavior > are strong enough to make this a better country for most people to live in. > > Pamela > > > > On Mar 29, 2011, at 3:10 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > > Wow! So when a majority of white southerners showed up in their Sunday > finest to watch the weekly lynchings, that was the right thing? > > I guess you mean "right" in some other sense. > > N > > -----Original Message----- > From: friam-boun...@redfish.com > [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com<friam-boun...@redfish.com>] > On Behalf > Of Sarbajit Roy > Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:26 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] vol 93, issue 22 > > McAfee SiteAdvisor Warning > > This e-mail message contains potentially unsafe links to these > sites: > friam.org > > What the majority of people do IS the right thing. Wisdom of crowds and so > on. > > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Douglas Roberts <d...@parrot-farm.net> > wrote: > > Geeze, Nick. > > You can't make people do the right thing. People have to want to do > > the right thing. People don't want to do the right thing. (Speaking > > in majority terms now, minority exceptions don't count). Things won't > > change until people change. When will that be? Not in our lifetime, > > people are slow learners, and relatively stupid, statistically > > speaking. We're talking on the evolutionary time scale before the > > collective good will come before the individual profit on this particular > > spec of the cosmos. > > --Doug > > BTW, I'm a realist. Not a pessimist, nor an optimist. Roger probably > > understands. And Steve. I kind of wonder about some of the rest of > > you, though. > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, > unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > "Do you know what sleep is? Do you know that every man who sleeps believes in > God? It is a sacrament; for it is an act of faith and it is a food. And we > need a sacrament, if only a natural one." > > G. K. Chesterton > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- Doug Roberts drobe...@rti.org d...@parrot-farm.net 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
