From: John B (discwuzit@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Mar 27 2002 - 10:34:46 MST
Quoth Mike Lorrey:
"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."
How can you tell if someone walking into your store or
other place of business belongs in a given stereotype
or subculture?
You have to stereotype. You have to apply a label to
the person, be it 'goth', 'neonazi', 'redneck',
'WASP', 'KKK', 'liberal', 'conservative', etc. And
this is profiling. Both good and bad - it's what
happens.
Humans think in symbols. We require a 'bucket' to dump
people into, as well as books, music - anything you
care to name that people develop opinions about. It is
practically impossible for people to be able to fully
differentiate between any two people in the course of
daily life. There will always be simiarities, either
in reality or just in perception, that people rely on
to cut down their mental processing.
Are people able to distinguish one person from
another? Of course - not what I meant. Rather, people
work from vague memories of previous behavior of a
given person or others who remind you of that person.
IE - long hair on a guy could be a good thing or a bad
thing, depending on your personal history with
long-haired guys and what you've read, viewed, and
otherwise mentally ingested.
"ALL liberty is open to abuse, Chesh. Virtuous
behavior is only virtuous if it is freely chosen.
Enforced virtue is no virtue at all."
I must disagree with you. For instance, if everyone -
EVERYONE - is forced to follow the traffic laws
through the courts and increasing insurance fees and
suchlike, then there IS virtue. It keeps the roads
relatively safe.
It is easy to argue that this is not the case today.
However, this is at least the spoken goal of American
(and from what I understand, several other
nation-states) law.
I may be misinterpreting your above statement by
missing an implied 'Enforced PERSONAL virtue is no
PERSONAL virtue at all'. True, it's a societal virtue
- a virtue that affects the society, not one which is
a direct benefit to the person. In fact, it imposes
extra work on the person - registering the vehicle,
following traffic regulations, putting up with
inquisitive police, etc. But all in all, it helps keep
society together.
Or so thinks I. *grin*
-John Benner
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