Quarantines may be justified

[Mike Rosing]

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Harmon Seaver wrote:

>     I think that some of the people here have some fantasy that the state will
> totally wither away and there will be no restraints on anyone's behavior except
> economic ones. Or else believe in some equally fantastized society where
> everyone will just willingly respect others and all will live in peace and
> harmony -- which is absurd, especially given the fact that for whatever reason,
> young people are increasingly oblivious to the rights of others and very much
> unconcerned with anything but thier own gratification.

"young" is a point of view too.  Did you care much more about anything but
yourself when you were 1 year old?  Of course not, and I don't think that
view expands all that fast for most people.  By the time we're ten, we
know the rest of the world is out there, but who cares?  The basic view is
"how does it affect *me*?"  Nobody cares about the rights of others, they
only care about themselves.  Which is why we end up with stupid laws.

Being able to abstract what we want to others always involves the
assumption that others are like us.  That's why politicians are so good at
name calling, they know they lie cheat and steal, so they blame the other
guy for doing the same thing.

Jumping up a level of abstraction to figure out how we really can all be
different and still get along is a very hard chore.  This list is a
microcosim of the whole world - it's weird, it's different and it has more
than enough town fools.

Some temples burn incense all day long - that's "smoking" too.  Is a
zoning law going to interfere with first amendment rights of religion?
Maybe.  Airports are always initially built far away from cities, and then
people move in around them and complain about the noise.  It's the same
thing - you try to solve the problem, but it comes back later anyway.

Being able to draw lines and say where and when things are allowable makes
more sense than banning behavior.  If some societies decide smoking in
public isn't allowed, that's one solution.  Other societies might choose
to draw the line in children's parks.  The point is the group that decides
has to live with its decisions - and we can argue all we want about how
stupid the decisions are, but we still gotta convince the voters to change
their minds.  And until it directly actually affects them, most people
just won't care.

Freedom is too abstract, until it's *your* door that gets kicked down in
the middle of the night.  Especially if you happen to be smoking ganja.

Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike