View Single Post
Old 12-08-2004, 03:43 PM   #49 (permalink)
smooth
Junkie
 
Location: Right here
Mephisto,

I should have said that the inconsistencies in the laws point to the fact that there is no morality enshrined in the law itself.

Humans can certainly decide whether a behavior is immoral or not. That's the point I was trying to convey: that this one state's laws does not make the action immoral--the conduct might.

So I read some responses as: the law says it's wrong, therefor it's wrong. I think this is further complicated by the fact that people develop within their social context. Meaning, their definition of right versus wrong hinges upon and is shaped by the laws.

This places some of us in an untenable scenario of arguing against something that seems so self evident--purely because the law and morality says something should be viewed in a particular way. Without acknowledging that one can be directed by the other.

So, if we view law as a ground up process, we would be less concerned because legal reasoning would hinge upon the actual values in effect. But law doesn't operate like that in the states. On the contrary, law is handed down.

I'm not going to use your terms, they seem to not get us very far if I engaged in conspiracy language, but law is created and decided upon by people in a particular class--lawyers for the most part, politicians less often. It reflects their interests and is not often representative of the people it constrains (or protects, in some cases, if you prefer).

And you already ceded that I might have more insight into the background issues in the creation of our laws Are you taking that back now? I never said anything about Orwellian conspiracies, but there are structural factors we could discuss and analyze--it isn't as clear cut as you are suggesting.


EDIT: and you should be aware that, although you snipped what you considered to be anomalies in my post, the overarching trends go far beyond a few isolated cases.

What I'm talking about is a current raging debate about how to treat minors under the law. In some instances they are increasingly treated like adults, in others as irrational actors without the ability to deduce right from wrong. Those factors point to our confusion, not the two examples I listed.

2nd EDIT: also, I will take you up on a discussion of Marxian critique of the law. It will have to wait for at least a week, but I will kick it off by quoting your portions in a new thread over in politics. I'll PM you when I am ready. If I forget, please remind me, because it will be an interesting discussion for at least both of us.
__________________
"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman

Last edited by smooth; 12-08-2004 at 04:03 PM..
smooth is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360