Yes Platt, I know the words ... the problem is how narrowly you interpret their intended meaning - dumb (ergo) logic or enlightened reason.
Where to start ? He's talking (in the first and third paras) about the paralysis of political correctness refusing to accept the biological nature of any crimes. I'm not doing that. I asserting that crimes of robbery can be largely social. I can accept that pretty well any crimes against the biological person are largely biological - the raping and murder (and any lesser crimes by white-trash or ethnic-thugs disrepecting the rights of human individuals) - but even there I'd have to qualify that with the motive - as any court of law would do in deciding sex was rape and killing was murder. Robbery in the grand scheme of things is often not (nay rarely) against the individual, but often against an institution. Clearly as I said above, the victims of biological crimes are individual humans. Some crimes are against society though. In any event I totally agree with (the second para) the right of society to enforce it's laws by force against biological (or social) crime. That's the point of static latching, it's pragmatically useful to enforce the law now and intellectually debate the philosophical values later, rather than fiddle whilst Rome burns. The fact that theft / robbery is a game or a psychological disorder for some, [as Krimel suggests] does not mean anyone is saying ALL crime is a socio-intellectual game. Only an idiot would suggest that anyone might suggest that. As usual you show us the sad limits of all or nothing logic. Ian (PS - excluded middles) On 5/10/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Quoting ian glendinning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > Robbery is a biological pattern. > > > > > > > What !?! Nice try Platt to roll that into a passage of Pirsig's words, > > but it precedes the quotation marks. (Nasty dishonest trick by the > > way.) > > > > Anyway, robbery is social, presuming a society that has adopted the > > concept of property rights. > > > > If a rat "robs" an egg from a bird's nest - that's biological, but the > > word "rob" is chosen by a member of human society, not by the rat or > > the bird. The rat is simply "taking" the egg in order to live. The rat > > is the bad guy thanks to human metaphors only. > > > > Robbers in human society have a wide range of possible biological, > > social and, dare I say, intellectual reasons to do so, but mostly > > social. > > Crime is a biological pattern. Robbery is a crime. Ergo, robbery is a > biological > pattern. Read Pirsig and learn: > > "Thus, throughout this century we have seen over and over again that > intellectuals > weren't blaming crime on man's biological nature, but on the social patterns > that had > repressed this biological nature." > > "The idea that biological crimes can be ended by intellect alone, that you > can talk > crime to death, doesn't work. Intellectual patterns cannot directly control > biological patterns. Only social patterns can control biological patterns, > and the > instrument of conversation between society and biology is not words. The > instrument > of conversation between society and biology has always been a policeman or a > soldier > and his gun." > > "A second part of the paralysis probably came from the fact that the > criminals were > black. If it had been a group of trash whites moving into the neighborhood, > robbing > and raping and killing, the response would have been much fiercer, but when > whites > denounced blacks for robbing and raping and killing they left themselves open > to the > charge of racism." > > "What's coming out of the urban slums, where old Victorian social moral codes > are > almost completely destroyed, isn't any new paradise the revolutionaries hoped > for, > but a reversion to rule by terror, violence and gang death-the old biological > might-makes-right morality of prehistoric brigandage that primitive societies > were > set up to overcome." > > > > ------------------------------------------------- > This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
