Comments on: Illicit: not the same as illegal. http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/07/14/illicit-not-the-same-as-illegal/ Sliding down the banisters of the ivory tower. Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:46:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Dara Lind http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/07/14/illicit-not-the-same-as-illegal/#comment-777 Dara Lind Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:56:37 +0000 http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/?p=157#comment-777 Your postscript pushes me exactly halfway into humorless-leftist mode, and halfway into Helen's-straight-man mode. Which is a state not unlike straddling a razor blade. Profoundly uncomfortable. Your postscript pushes me exactly halfway into humorless-leftist mode, and halfway into Helen’s-straight-man mode. Which is a state not unlike straddling a razor blade. Profoundly uncomfortable.

]]> By: Helen http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/07/14/illicit-not-the-same-as-illegal/#comment-776 Helen Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:53:39 +0000 http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/?p=157#comment-776 I think the last sentence here is the most important one. You think that making up a fake law is immoral, I think it's mostly fine, but we both agree that it made the clerk's attempts to shame the girl far less effective. Don't underrate the fact that social norms are essentially toothless, though, because the weakness of American social norms undercuts your entire alternative. I would also point out that we can't beef up social norms without beefing up the forms of <i>authority</i> that back them up, and jeepers is that going to be like pushing molasses up a sandy hill. For the next fifty years. P.S. Seriously, are you telling me you've never made up a completely fake law to freak somebody out? You gotta learn to live a little. I think the last sentence here is the most important one. You think that making up a fake law is immoral, I think it’s mostly fine, but we both agree that it made the clerk’s attempts to shame the girl far less effective.

Don’t underrate the fact that social norms are essentially toothless, though, because the weakness of American social norms undercuts your entire alternative. I would also point out that we can’t beef up social norms without beefing up the forms of authority that back them up, and jeepers is that going to be like pushing molasses up a sandy hill. For the next fifty years.

P.S. Seriously, are you telling me you’ve never made up a completely fake law to freak somebody out? You gotta learn to live a little.

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