09-05-2007, 06:40 PM
(WARNING: The following does not imply moral equivalence in any sense. It is only an example from similar rights-based challenges.)
This is very much like the classic free speech defense of holocaust deniers. What do you say when someone should have taken a sensible course of action, but instead took an odious-but-correct stand on their rights?
Cops and corporations taking a mile when they've only been given an inch is a greater danger than jerks making scenes.
On the other hand, there is a certain 'softness' that makes society go 'round. If everyone stood on their rights every time, there would be no cooperation. Blood pressures would go through the roof, and the society would collapse into a mess of bickering.
So, I think guys like this are important, but only occasionally. It is important to remember that people are the source of rights, not government, not police, and certainly not Circuit City. But, just like if every book published was David Irving, if every shopper was this guy, we'd be going to hell in a handbasket.
-Jester
This is very much like the classic free speech defense of holocaust deniers. What do you say when someone should have taken a sensible course of action, but instead took an odious-but-correct stand on their rights?
Cops and corporations taking a mile when they've only been given an inch is a greater danger than jerks making scenes.
On the other hand, there is a certain 'softness' that makes society go 'round. If everyone stood on their rights every time, there would be no cooperation. Blood pressures would go through the roof, and the society would collapse into a mess of bickering.
So, I think guys like this are important, but only occasionally. It is important to remember that people are the source of rights, not government, not police, and certainly not Circuit City. But, just like if every book published was David Irving, if every shopper was this guy, we'd be going to hell in a handbasket.
-Jester