[ox-en] Rules and alienation (was: Re: SpamAssassin and OHA)
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:39:10 +0100
Hi Casimir and all!
Last month (44 days ago) Casimir Purzelbaum wrote:
Actually since discussing this topic virtually nobody denied, that
there "must be rules".
In "general", I do very much deny this. (Not in our current and a
lot of other situations, though.) Why should there *always* have
to be rules?!
I did not talk of always.
What is a rule?
I think this is simple: A rule is something which influences
individual behaviuor. It does not matter whether this something is
explicitly formulated or not. It even does not matter whether you are
aware of that rule. After all if following rules would require a
conscious decision then children could not follow rules. Of course
they do.
If you look at rules as in
mathematics or physics... I would agree with you. If you look at
them as "formalized enforcable guidelines concerning the behaviour of
the individuals", then I disagree (talking most generally).
Rules need not be formalized to be rules. A formalized rule I'd rather
call a law.
Indeed it is very interesting to look at the process of formalization
and what it does to rules. Also programs are formalizations of rules.
I think this is what Russell means when he talks of software in
(territorial) communities.
I think the process of formalization as such is very prone to
alienation. As of now I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with
the narrowing you need to do when you want to cast a complex social
process to some words.
...
* Everybody inside or outside this community has to respect these
rules or otherwise may be subject to some negative consequences
In a way this is some sort of self-defense. Also I'd say everyone
who does not comply to the rules of the community s/he's interacting
with is alienated from this community. Again I think alienation is
the key aspect here.
I think -- even more than you do -- that alienation is the key
aspect here: Who would need a rule if everybody would know to
behave himself as to not alienate himself from the community of
the people he lives in? (and if the community would take care of
not alienating itself from itself...)
By the definition I gave above this is not a contradiction. To put it
differently: Behaving according to the rule means not alienating from
the community.
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
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