Bill Dog's Journal: I guess that's where we are

So I'm waiting in the Wendy's drive-thru after work tonight, and there's an ad on the radio I guess from the BSA. It said software piracy is not only wrong, it's illegal.

Doesn't "not only x, but also y" mean "as if x wasn't bad enough, there's also y"? When you use that rhetorical structure, aren't you going in increasing badness about something? Saving the worst for last, for the most dramatic effect and hopefully to seal the persuasion deal?

So now something being against the law carries more convincing force than something being wrong. I guess the needles of the moral compasses of most these days spin wildly instead of track steady. And without the force of government we'd be ethically lost.

Reminds of seeing on Cops a few weeks ago, teen gets arrested for taking a gun to an argument, luckily the cops stop things before anyone gets hurt, and dad is at the station talking to the young lad, very disappointed, and says son, don't you know you could get tried as an adult for killing someone? WTF? Because that's worse than ending another human being's life?!? That's why you shouldn't murder people?!?

p.s. Also heard on the radio tonight some announcer pronounce the TLD of that web site as oh arr gee. Made me think, I want a .OMG site!

Guilt and fear

[smittyoneeach]

"Wrong" is supposed to make you feel guilty. "Illegal" is meant to raise the specter of the legal system as a stick to beat you into compliance.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

True; in that sense it's an escalating threat of unpleasantness of experience.

It's just that the kind of person I am, I consider legality a subset of morality, and the latter carrying more authority.

I guess that ad was for those who are, in a sense, dead inside. Spiritually, empathy*-wise, conscience-wise.

*Or incapable of empathy for anyone outside their immediate family. I.e. zero feelings of goodwill toward coworkers, neighbors, countrymen, etc.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Another thought: When your spawn are really young, you have to put things in terms of them, like they shouldn't hit another child because "how would you like it if they hit you". The assumption being that you only have to do that temporarily, until they mature a little.

Mature and develop the capacities associated with being a normal, well-adjusted human being. But maybe that's now an old normal. Modern life has made humans no longer need certain traits to nevertheless still be able to survive.

oh, nonsense

[smittyoneeach]

Human nature is constant. Technology is variable. There is nothing new under the sun.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

I wasn't talking about human nature, I was talking about human adaptations. Try to follow along.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Maybe this'll help: It's human nature that makes us not want to grow up, but it's modern life that makes it possible for us not to have to grow up.

Re:

[smittyoneeach]

Yeah, sure, OK, fine. That's sort of the point I was making, but I'll accept the restatement. So, what? Are you making a Luddite case against technology, then? Should we require no recording of performances, by law?

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Recording of performances? What kind of performances?!?

AFAICT you're the one that brought technology into this. I was just making a comment about our apparent collective moral maturity level. And then later it occurred to me that if most of us no longer advance very far in that way, it's probably because we don't need to to make do in modern society. Character no longer matters; that's an antiquated virtue now. Being self-centered and morally stunted serves one even better now. Not in relationships (and

No

[smittyoneeach]

apparent collective moral maturity level

I have a real problem with "collective moral maturity". We are individuals in distinct contexts.
It's tempting to derive some kind of metric value for a snapshot of the state of some population.

I was happier when people weren't so stupid and rotten, and I naturally want to think my happier outlook in say my 30's was based on validity and not just some cluelessness on my part.

It may be possible to arrive at some snapshot figure for the instantaneous "stupidity and rottenness" of a population. My gut is that, if you could do it for varying slices over time, you'd be hard pressed to find any variance. Humanity has been ignoble, sinful, and rebellious since The Fall.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Then I'm commenting on just this cycle of human stupidity and rottenness; I haven't lived forever, and I believe the Bible, so I'm fine with human worthlessness being relatively constant over the long haul, and being rippled upon close examination. So I'm decrying the current ripple/this ripple's particular manifestation(s) of that constant wretchedness and lameness that is people.

Like for instance driving. I've had to drive on average a half hour one way to work, for better than the last 20 years. I ass

"recording of performances"

[smittyoneeach]

I was going for one remedy, which would be to roll time back before Edison and outlaw making of recordings. There would be nothing to pirate if all performances had to be live. Just a thought experiment.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Oh, I see now; because in my mind I wasn't talking about software piracy, I didn't make the mental jump to music piracy.