Dissonant Cognition

[rou_killingtime]

Just started reading Charles Stross' Accelerando, after reading hutch0  bigging him up in his blog. I'm only about ten pages into it, and already I just know that this is a book that I'm going to greatly enjoy. I'll post again once I've finished the book, although that may not be as soon as I'd like due to my not making as much time for reading as I used

Comments

[hutch0]

Hm. I've always found that libertarian argument really suspect. When you boil off the fancy rhetoric, what it really says is, `I'm going to do whatever I want, and nobody can stop me. I alone am the arbiter of right and wrong.'
I know it's not my place, and I have no right to say this, but you be careful, mate, okay? Don't do anything daft.

[rou_killingtime]

That's odd - I always feel somewhat uneasy if anyone tells me that they live strictly by some arbitrary external code. That's like saying "I deny responsibility for anything I do, because I'm simply obeying the rules". Look at how well that line of thinking worked out in Germany in the second quarter of the twentieth century...

My own code is pretty much the 'Golden Rule' of doing unto others as I would have them do unto me, with a little bit of modified Hippocratic Oath mixed in. The modification is that I always choose to do the least harm, as I recognise that doing no harm at all is often impossible.

Some of the laws of our land really get my goat, however. Examples include

[hutch0]

Yes, I think I'd go along with you on most of those. The seatbelt/crash helmet thing is just common sense - I'd like to make my survival a little more likely in the event of a car crash. And there are some drugs that, laws notwithstanding, you'd just have to be stupid to put into your body. On the other hand, I drink and smoke, both of which have probably already shortened my life, so I'm in no position to preach.
I was a bit alarmed about what you said about breaking laws and maybe winding up in chokey, is all.