[geeks] FW: [rescue] UPS Recommendation

[Kurt Huhn]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 18:09:07 +0200
Frank Van Damme <frank.vandamme at student.kuleuven.ac.be> wrote:

> 
> It's been a while for me too ;-) . In any case, Weber was sure power
> couldn't survive without legitimation - which in turn comes from people
> having an affective or rational belief in a norm, or if the norm
> originates from a source whose legitimacy is out of question.
> 
> Which doesn't mean the whole system collapses if certain individuals don't
> follow the norm anymore. What is important for the legitimacy of a norm is
> that generally people accept what it prescribes as binding.
> 
> I think it must be about the same with guns and gun laws. As long as
> people generally live peacefully with a law that forbids guns, there is no
> problem. I don't know if Weber ever wrote something about anarchy, but I
> suppose if crime got out of hand so far that the legitimacy of the
> police/government/... suffered from it, the population would probably
> start wiping their feet with gun bills.
> 
> Still, at the moment, goverments are a pretty widely-accepted fenomenon,
> so I don't see a reason to transfer the use of violence to unthrustworthy
> individuals who claim legitimacy for their posession of guns.
> 

Maybe it's just me, but I see several, big, glaring, cruise-ship-sized hole
in this theory.  You hit on most of it with "Which doesn't mean the whole
system collapses if certain individuals don't follow the norm anymore."  The
fact is, lots of humans resist the norm - at any price.

I won't get into the guns vs. no guns debate as I believe it's pointless. 
Two sides of an issue convinced that they're "right" (or left, as the case
may be ;) and nothing can convince either side to even take a rational look
at the opposition's argument.  

I will say that I personally have saved my own hide (and possibly others)
once by owning (and knowing how/when to use) a gun.  For that reason, I'll
always own one.

That and shooting guns is fun....

-- 
Kurt                 "I am not aware that any community has a right to 
kurt at k-huhn.com       force another to be civilized." 
                                                   --John Stuart Mill