Posted on 05/22/2007 1:19:15 PM PDT by Alkhin
If you think about it, all of our laws – and indeed, the very idea of respect for and equality under the law – are written to protect Tit-for-Tat, because Tit-for-Tat produces the best results. You may sell your product at a profit, but if you lie about what it does we will call that fraud and you will go to jail because successful societies start nice but retaliate against those that decide to Screw the Other Guy. The punishment of fraud is what gives us confidence in the claims made by other products. Retaliating against Screw the Other Guy is not mean-spritedness or a lust for revenge. It is essential to protect the confidence needed to stay focused on long-term wins. And that’s how, in theory, you build a cooperative society.
You retaliate against those that take advantage of the common trust. In other words, you punish the cheaters.
If you do not punish the cheaters, you have an “always cooperate” society that produces, consistently and rapidly, the worst possible outcome because it encourages – it selects – competing nasty strategies, by providing them with what I can only describe as a food source. Without retaliation against cheaters, cheaters thrive because that becomes the smartest strategy. There’s nothing “kind” about non-retaliation, nothing noble or good. Non-retaliation is suicide. Plain and simple.
(Excerpt) Read more at ejectejecteject.com ...
The biggest losers in our inability to control illegal immigration are the legal immigrants. What benefit do these honest people gain from playing by the rules? This is as clear a real-world example as you are likely to see of the lack of retaliation flipping a system from cooperation to betrayal.
And, by allowing this to happen, you also set a precedent, which I think is even more destructive: you are saying not only to the illegals but to the entire society that laws are for chumps. Cheaters win. How much of this do we need to be immersed in before everyone realizes the smart move is to flip from cooperation to betrayal? How much damage does it do when the very people sworn to uphold the law – uphold the rules that allow this amazing cooperation game to continue -- are the ones who seem most enthusiastic to reward cheating? Finding out the cops are in on the crime is enough to drive even the most stout-hearted person to despair.
Bump
Bump
Yes, indeed. What ever happened to the Social Contract? All those people streaming over our borders never heard of it.
It has always been this way. If you feel you see it happening now, before your very eyes, well… you are not alone. A society unwilling to enforce the laws that civilize it, that is unable or unwilling to see the advantages of civilization, a society led by the pampered, the narcissistic and the corrupt, is not long for this Earth. Our enemies look at us and see precisely these symptoms, and the symptons are worsening. Our unwillingness to retaliate when retaliation is called for – indeed, the uneasiness with the very idea of retaliation against betrayal – has them licking their lips in anticipation. They see all this decay and they are right to see it, for it is there.
Once in a while somebody says those words, but they were never more than some words in a book. It's bogus. There is no social contract.
This philosophy also applies to the death penalty in capital murder cases.
It’s not “revenge”, it’s punishment, regardless of the “deterent” factor.
The left has a huge problem with the concept of “consequences for behavior/decisions”, that’s why they can’t, don’t, and won’t get this.
This is part of the problem. The legal immigrants from Mexico will not stand up, because of fear, to the illegals. This is what I meant about Mexicans not wanting to change their own country. They just run here and won’t stand up for this country either. Send them all back, close our borders and prosecute those that break our laws.....including our immigration laws. Set up prisons on the border and let them sit there. Run the prisons the same way the Mexicans do and they won’t want to be there.
” All those people streaming over our borders never heard of [the social contract].”
Neither have 95% of the people living here.
Alkhin: Thanks for posting, I’ve been waiting for Part Two for a while
Steve0113: Bill Whittle ping!
Bill Whittle ROCKS!
I give you an example of the Remnant: people who go to the trouble of getting a CCW, and then pack heat.
This is not something the elites want or wanted.
Given that “shall issue” has gone from only a few States to the majority of states in less than 10 years ... there may be hope yet.
Speaking of which, I really need to take some courses on handling a weapon myself. So far we have a Remington rifle and a Harpers Ferry flintlock pistol (we are Texas Revolution re-enactors) LOL -
I LOVE the idea of the Remnant - its one of those ephemeral things that you get a wiggle of in your brain or your heart, but you just cant get it out...until someone like Bill comes along and nails it with the perfect term.
I’m glad you posted this, I’ve had too many threads pulled for reasons I couldn’t identify. I’m still questioning the idea of being able to conciously choose to be a part of the “Remnant”. But a I am amused to see how quickly somebody tried to turn this into an immigration thread. Lord knows we don’t have enough of those.
Thing is Bill DOES address the illegal immigration issue in his essay...and its on everyones minds...and its part and parcel to our growing frustration. What do we do in the face of barbarianism when it has become patently clear that those in power WANT that to prevail? At what point do those who have been working to be a part of Western Civilization stand up and tell the elitists and the barbarians that they dont get to reap the benefits and trash it at the same time? As he pointed out in his Prisoner Dilemma example...at one point or another, it all just falls apart and they wont have it anymore. And there is a growing number of us who are starting to feel ‘well, if THAT’S what you want...’
BUMP
bttt
Just love Bill Whittle.
BTTT!!!!!
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