From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Mar 26 2002 - 08:50:56 MST
the animated silicon love doll wrote:
>
> 2002.03.21 06:58:04, Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:
>
> >In fact, an argument can be made that in a libertarian society, it is
> >the individual's responsibility to engage in such peer pressure in order
> >to maintain a polite, peaceful and stable libertarian community. Failing
> >to do so is abdicating individual responsibility and thus invites in the
> >hand of the state (essentially what occured in the south in the 60s).
>
> Unfortunately, this is very open to abuse. Take an incident like the
> Columbine shootings, for example - I don't doubt that quite a lot of
> businesses would want to not serve goths after that. Obviously, this is
> very unwarranted. But goths are not that much a minority, at least not in
> either of the places I've lived (Minneapolis, MN and Salt Lake City, UT);
> definitely not enough that in a situation like that where there is a
> significant public backlash against us (or any group - replace "Columbine
> shootings" with "9/11" and "goths" with "Arabs", etc) for us to not starve
> to death or have to depend on our more normal looking friends for survival.
The problem with this is extending such peer pressure to a group as a
whole based on the actions of individuals. Should *I* be inconvenienced
or refused commerce because I'm white, blonde and blue eyed, just
because some neo-Nazis engaged in terrorists attacks? No, of course not.
If I belong to a neo-nazi group or sport neo-nazi tatoos, clothing, etc,
should I be refused business? You betcha. If I lived in Hayden Lake, or
Elohim City, or have a public criminal record of harassment, weapons
violations, etc, should I be treated differently than others? Of course.
This is the line between bad and good profiling.
ALL liberty is open to abuse, Chesh. Virtuous behavior is only virtuous
if it is freely chosen. Enforced virtue is no virtue at all.
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