This is my John Galt speaking cartoon
#22
(03-31-2011, 07:12 PM)--Pete Wrote: Hi,

(03-31-2011, 02:22 PM)kandrathe Wrote: I think you can hold individuals responsible for the crimes they commit, ...

As long as their "crimes" were such in their time and by their code. Not in our time and by our codes. I'm tired of all this crap of blaming people for not behaving as we would behave. We're not all that great, just arrogant.

--Pete
I take the empirical natural law view that "crimes" are the ones that intentionally or through negligence, cause harm, or loss to another person or their property. But, of course, the law of land prevails.

For example, if the headhunter eats our friend the tourist, I'll still hold them accountable for causing the death. If he doesn't want us to exact justice, then he shouldn't go around eating our friends. Without clear mostly "universal" definitions of crime, you get into that whole morass of moral relativism. I just happened to be thinking about this yesterday, in recognizing the difference between a "crime malum in se" as inherently criminal; whereas a "crime malum prohibitum" being criminal only because the law has decreed it so. I was explaining to my son how our driving laws have become so numerous and complex, such that most people are guilty of numerous infractions throughout their driving journey. A police officer, if motivated to do so by suspicion, can choose to follow a person until the person inevitably commits an infraction. It is probably the principle way that bias enters the judicial system. Certain classes of people are targeted as suspicious more often, and so, their incarceration and conviction rates are higher.

But, there are sticky points to my simple definition as well; Is it a crime to harm oneself, or ones own property? So, we get into gray areas like animal cruelty, or environmental damage. What about cutting down a 300 year old tree on my own property? Or, performing euthanasia my own sick animal?
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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Messages In This Thread
This is my John Galt speaking cartoon - by Jim - 03-28-2011, 08:41 AM
RE: This is my John Galt speaking cartoon - by kandrathe - 03-31-2011, 09:08 PM
Familiarity breeds apathy. - by --Pete - 04-02-2011, 02:33 PM
RE: Familiarity breeds apathy. - by LavCat - 04-03-2011, 01:18 AM

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