From: Anonymous on
In article <k9SdnZcV-MeW7sXRnZ2dnUVZ_tSdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>,
HeyBub <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>Howard Brazee wrote:

[snip]

>> When we get the politicians we want, we deserve what we get.
>
>Lawrence J. Peter (discoverer of the "Peter Principle") once said: "I have
>been studying governments, man and boy, for over forty years. I have yet to
>discover whether we are being led by well-meaning fools or by really bright
>people who are just putting us on."
>
>My rendition: "In a suitably advanced society, it is impossible to tell
>whether a government action is motivated by malice or incompetence."

I was taught 'never attribute to malice that which can be explained by
incompetence'; a cursory bit of research reveals:

From http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_J._Hanlon :

--begin quoted text

In The Sorrows of Young Werther (ed. note: 1774) Goethe declared:
"Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than
even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less
frequent occurrence."

In his story Logic of Empire (1941) Heinlein declares: "You have
attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity". He
calls this the "devil theory" of sociology.

--end quoted text

DD

From: Anonymous on
In article <drsg56t14bj5hu69tmga5o9ohr0ma4rle9(a)4ax.com>,
Howard Brazee <howard(a)brazee.net> wrote:

[snip]

>Trolls are another example of people who play roles until that role is
>them.

From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363.txt :

--begin quoted text:

146. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become
a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze
into thee.

(Nietzsche, 'Beyond Good and Evil', tr. Helen Zimmern)

--end quoted text

DD

From: Howard Brazee on
On Wed, 4 Aug 2010 13:32:14 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf(a)panix.com () wrote:

>--begin quoted text:
>
>146. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become
>a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze
>into thee.
>
>(Nietzsche, 'Beyond Good and Evil', tr. Helen Zimmern)
>
>--end quoted text
>
>DD

Very good. Of course I'm* not subject to that, I'm careful.
* For a very large value of "I".

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on
On Wed, 4 Aug 2010 13:26:26 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf(a)panix.com () wrote:

>I was taught 'never attribute to malice that which can be explained by
>incompetence';

Me too. I'm a big believer in incompetence, and I believe that most
all villains think they're the good guys, or at least they are right
to respond to their injustices. Someone can, say decide to start an
unwinnable war to protect us - if it doesn't protect us and also costs
us dearly, then it is incompetence to blame.

Trouble is, the victims aren't any better off being destroyed by
incompetence.

Our society has a value where we don't punish people as much who
either didn't mean to do their crime or who commit their crime in a
state of high passion. That doesn't protect the rest of us though.
Consider, who is the bigger danger to you - the guy who committed a
crime in road rage, or the guy who killed his spouse for the insurance
money?

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: HeyBub on
Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Aug 2010 13:26:26 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf(a)panix.com () wrote:
>
>> I was taught 'never attribute to malice that which can be explained
>> by incompetence';
>
> Me too. I'm a big believer in incompetence, and I believe that most
> all villains think they're the good guys, or at least they are right
> to respond to their injustices. Someone can, say decide to start an
> unwinnable war to protect us - if it doesn't protect us and also costs
> us dearly, then it is incompetence to blame.
>

If you're talking about the "War on Terror," the actual goal (and one which
a politican cannot say) is "We are not in this war to win it because it is
unwinnable. Our goal is not to lose."


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