The Policeman Inside

[Greg Broiles]

Kent Crispin wrote:

>The whole notion of "the policeman inside" is stupid sloganeering.  Of
>*course* we have a policeman inside -- we have something that tells us
>(at least some of us) that murder, theft, and dishonesty are 
>behaviors to be avoided.  We have something that tells us (some of us) 
>it would be foolish to make a habit of running red lights.

"The policeman inside" is neither a conscience nor an instinct towards
self-preservation. I'm familiar with the term being used to refer to the
internalization of a system of external rules, coupled with a belief in
pervasive surveillance and/or the adoption of the viewpoint of an external
supervisor, such that one with a "policeman inside" learns to fear
punishment at every moment and in every situation. See, for example,
Bentham's Panopticon or Foucault's _Discipline & Punish_ for more on the
topic. 

Also, you may note that two of the three terms you used as examples of
"wrong" behavior themselves imply judgments and a moral position - "theft"
and "murder". Whether or not the taking of a physical thing is "theft" can
be a complex question, that has a lot to do with contracts and agreements
and socially constructed ideas about property. Similarly, "murder" is (to
adopt a broad definition) an unlawful and intentional homicide - which,
again, presupposes certain judgements about relationships between people.

It's easy to say that "theft and murder are wrong", because wrongness is
part of the meaning of the terms "theft" and "murder". It's much less
satisfying to say something like "it's wrong to take things that someone
else thinks they own, unless they're mistaken or you have a superior claim"
or "it's wrong to shoot someone who didn't deserve to be shot".

It's the creation of a "policeman inside" which causes people to lose their
ability to make judgements about which people (if any) ought to be shot and
which people deserve to keep their stuff. And that loss of the ability
(cognitive and moral) is, I think, a direct cause of the very crimes (theft
and murder) you mention.


--
Greg Broiles                | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell:
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http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | http://www.parrhesia.com