(This blog originally posted 5/20/2005.)
The civilization of a society is not measured by the number of laws it writes, but in how few laws it has.
The notion of a 'responsible' society is one where some individuals deem themselves responsible for the actions of other individuals. When that happens, people who feel that burden of responsibility are forced into some VERY uncivilized actions against other people (resulting in lots of laws) to mitigate the weight of their conscience.
The end effect?
The more responsible a society deems itself the be, the less civilized it has become.
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I just wanted to say that your posts are amazing. I'm an instant fan. I think we are channeling some of the same themes. I found your site through a link from Terrierman (who I read daily, despite some differences of opinion on a few issues).
ReplyDeleteHopefully you won't mind if I use some of your posts as inspirations to riff on and perhaps you'll find something I've written worth critiquing.
Cheers,
Christopher from BorderWars
Thanks for the kind words, Chris! I think most of my posts are just common sense, when people stop and think about things. And there certainly can't be too much of that!
ReplyDeleteDo you have a website for BorderWars? Feel free to post it.
Thanks, Ms. X
Happy Thanksgiving Ms. X and family,
ReplyDeleteMy blog is right here on blogger too, so you can get it at:
BorderWars: A Border Collie Blog
Or by clicking on my name and going from there.
You're right, there isn't enough people stopping to THINK. I've come across the worst arguments for why people continue to do stupid things while breeding dogs.
In Border Collies, the big debate is over "working" vs. "showing" ... but both sides seem to ignore the larger issue of health, and the much larger groups of sport border collies and pet border collies. They (herding and show breeders) both use inbreeding to excess. Major excess. Breed ruining excess.
But they waste most of their political capital calling out the other group for ruining the breed. Well, they're both right.
My better posts on the subject are "The Third Estate of the Border Collie" and "AKC vs ABCA"
I really hope to read more of your old posts, I've thoroughly enjoyed the ones you have up now.
Off to eat the prime rib (that's right, no turkey this year. Prime Rib.... mmmmmm. mmmmm. mmmm).
Happy Thanksgiving.