Sktea@aol.com wrote:
>
> Pirsig talked about natural laws and how they are invented, not discovered,
> by people. As he said (Zen, pp. 40-42, Quill trade paperback edition), there
> was no law of gravity sitting out in nothingness before the universe was
> "born," waiting to be discovered. People observed certain behavior,
> generalized from their observations, and codified the generalizations, or
> theories, according to their usefulness.
Bob replies,
I was wondering about that myself. How do you tell the difference
between something created and discovered?
The only explanation I've been able to come up with is: let's say
gravity (but not the 'law of gravity') existed before we did. Primitive
humans had a simple 'poor Quality' law of gravity: "Things fall when
dropped." As years went up that simple 'poor Quality' law was refined
with a 'high Quality' one by Einstein: "Gravity is a dent in the
space-time continuum which things roll into." It's really the same law,
just refined. And I'm sure as the years go by, Einstein's observation
will be refined even further. So we're 'creating' new and better laws,
which involve 'discovering' what reality is.
Here's how I came to the conclusion I did. It seemed to me that in
every country in the world--and throughout history, without
exception--the more government there was, the worse the society. I
didn't understand this.
So I decided to reduce things as simply as I could: what would I not
want done to me?
I don't want to be injured or killed.
I don't want my property damaged or stolen.
I don't want to be lied to or have someone break their word in a way
that injures me or my property.
This, I realized, is the Golden Rule, which exists in all religions and
nearly all philosophies.
This I believe is ultimately the basis of all 'good' law. What then is
the purpose of government? To protect those things. John Locke called it
'natural rights to life, liberty and property,' which made it into the
U.S. Constitution (I'm an American) as 'life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.')
I suspect all 'good' law is just more and better refinement of these
basic laws. This is what I mean by law being 'discovered.'
'Created' law, on the other hand, is whatever those in power want. If
the Nazis, Fascists and Communists had followed 'discovered' law instead
of 'creating' whatever law they wanted, there would be about 200 million
people who weren't killed. They violated their right to life, liberty
and property.
If governments followed 'discovered' laws, there would have been no
slavery or genocide or war.
'Created' law almost always seems to involve 'biological' values--lust
for power, hate, fear, envy, theft, murder. If the Nazis, Fascists and
Communists weren't powered by those values, what values were they
powered by? Society goes backward.
'Discovered' laws protect us from those 'biological' values. Society
goes foward.
Every day, in the newspapers and on tv, I see politicians and people
babbling about passing all kinds of new laws for whatever 'problem' they
perceive. To which I say, hey, wait a minute, do you really know what
they result of those laws will be? You're creating laws, not discovering
them! The results could be horrendous!
So the conclusion I came to is law should be mostly Static--it should
change slowly, carefully, and only in accordance with basic 'discovered'
laws. It should protect us from 'bad' biological values. So the 'law' I
place inherently in society.
'Created' law--made-up, invented law, whatever rulers or people
want--can do anything it wants, no matter how bad. It's almost pure
biological values. Society goes backward.
I think this explains why societies that believe in 'discovered' law
are relatively decent places to live. Countries which had 'created'--
made-up, invented laws--are either tyrannies or chaotic.
The USSR used to be a place with huge amounts of government, but no
'discovered' law. Law was 'created'--whatever the rulers wanted!
As government expanded, society retreated. When the USSR
collapsed--guess what! Now it's almost pure biological values over
there. Chaos. So I predict that the next step is tyranny to control the
chaos. 'Created' law instead of'discovered' law.
Platt made a comment about fairness. I remember reading that the only
way people can be totally equal is if they are totally identitical. Two
quarters or dimes or pennies are totally equal, because they are totally
identical. No two people are identical, so no one is equal.
The government, however, through force and violence, can force people
to try to be 'equal.' The 'discovered' law is that people are not equal.
The 'created' law is that they are. Guess what happens to society what
they 'created' law takes the place of 'discovered' law?
To me a theory is worthless unless it can explain the present and past,
and at least in a general way predict the future.
Bob
MOQ Online Homepage - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Unsubscribe - http://www.moq.org/md/index.html
MD Queries - horse@wasted.demon.nl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:59 BST