Unprincipled Thinking Yields Arbitrary Results

And when the unprincipled thinking gives rise to non-objective laws, the arbitrary results can be quite harmful.

Here are just two more stories I came across today regarding unprincipled thinking in the construction and enforcement of laws: The first regards a women who was told that she was suddenly no longer an American citizen; the second is about the arrest of a twelve year-old girl for doodling on her desk.

There is a very strong correlation between arbitrary laws and the loss of ability to think in principles.

Comments

Steve D said…
Yes, and in this case the correlation is always in one direction, implying that the loss of the ability to think in principles is ultimate cause of arbitrary laws.

Regardless, the thing I can't understand is how any police officer could possibly arrest a twelve year-old for doodling on her desk. What sort of human being could possibly do that? Principles or not it seems to me that in both cases an individual had to in both cases instigate the action (either arresting the girl or writing that letter). That individual could not have had even a semblence of common human decency.
February 9, 2010 at 7:24 PM
Lynne said…
Thanks for the comment, Steve.

I think the correlation goes both ways. Certainly, there could be mitigating factors in both cases, but from the reports alone, it appears that the instigating individuals were unable to understand the principles underlying the laws they thought they were upholding.

But I agree that the strongest correlation (and the most destructive action) is from unprincipled thinking to arbitrary laws.
February 9, 2010 at 8:28 PM
Steve D said…
Actually, I think there are two separate correlations but they essentially go in the same direction. The cause is unprincipled thinking and this leads to both inability to properly apply laws as well as the inability to make proper laws in the first place.

In the case of the girl being arrested it would seem there would have had to be more than one adult involved, at minimum a teacher, head of school and the officer himself. That they would all take an absolutely wrong course of action is of grave concern. In a rational society they would all face some serious discipline. They should be the focus of the law suits not the city.

Mitigating factors are possible perhaps but it is hard to imagine why three adults, one of them a police officer couldn't handle a 12year old girl.

Too bad she didn't understand all this. It seems part of her punishment was to write an essay and how lack of principles leads to this sort of behavior would have been the perfect subject.
February 11, 2010 at 8:01 AM
Lynne said…
Yes, that is a better formulation. They are two correlations going in the same direction.

And I can imagine some mitigating factors in the case of the 12 year-old. Repeated warnings against vandalism, repeated refusal to leave the classroom when asked by teachers, principle, etc. The use of handcuffs, while extreme, may have been to prevent her from hurting herself in a violent reaction to having to be physically removed from the classroom. However, the report mentioned none of these.
February 11, 2010 at 8:16 AM
Steve D said…
I guess if you think hard enough you can imagine justification for the handcuffs but given that she would have had to be a danger to herself or others it seems a pretty implausible scenario. (I don't think just refusal to leave the classroom would quite cut it.) If this was the case then the reporter who investigated and wrote the story did a very bad job!

In any case, your conclusion that this is an example of unprincipled thinking still stands, though it would be the reporter who was unprincipled (biased or incompetent) rather than the police officer.
February 11, 2010 at 6:41 PM
Lynne said…
'"We need to look at it a lot closer because it's not really made for 10-year-olds," he said at a news conference'

Said by an Indiana police officer re: using a stun gun on a kid 31 Mar 2010.
April 1, 2010 at 1:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plainsies, Clapsies

A ball bouncing game from my youth instructed the player to throw the ball up ( plainsies ), throw it up and clap ( clapsies ) throw it up and roll your hands ( roll the ball ) and touch your shoulders ( tabapsies ). In trying to locate the rest of the ball bouncing chant, I found out not only is my “tabapsies” a mondegreen , but also the motion – touching your shoulders – isn’t even the correct movement! You are supposed to clap your hands behind your back and say “ to backsies .”  Yeah. That makes much more sense. Being only slightly deflated by this discovery, I will still share my exciting news.  In an attempt to counteract the stretching of my wrist from doing front squats two days in a row, I pulled out the tabapsies motion this morning.  This, in itself, is not newsworthy.  However, I grabbed both shoulders with all five fingers!!! Again, not exciting unless you know that when I was nine years-old, I broke my left elbow doing a running cartwheel; the repai
Read more

Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution

Image
In preparation for celebrating the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, here are a few videos that I hope will inspire you to at least memorize the brief, but powerful Preamble. First, here is my first attempt at video editing with the bare bones Windows Movie Maker (no ability to step through frame by frame with sound, or ability to mark stops before cutting). My daughters are reading the Preamble to the Constitution from the little book I carry in my purse. They can recite it by heart, but it I thought it would be a little different (and a little less exposed) if they did it this way. Let's not even talk about the 20 takes due to laughter. If you knew it as a child, don't worry, it'll come back to you as Barney shows in this video. Finally, a little treat for my sci-fi loving friends. And if memorizing and reciting The Preamble in creative ways leaves you wanting more, you can find out which Founding Father you&#
Read more

Objectivist Round Up #153

Welcome to this 153 rd  issue of the Objectivist Round Up, a  blog carnival  of posts written by individuals who are advocates of Objectivism : the philosophy developed and defined by Ayn Rand . If you are new to Ayn Rand and would like to discover more about her "philosophy for living on earth", I recommend you read her two great novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead . If you know her novels, I recommend her non-fiction starting with The Virtue of Selfishness , and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal . The Ayn Rand Institute and the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights provide relevant information and commentary. Following, in the order in which they were received, are the posts for this Objectivist Round Up. John Drake presents Value dense gardening posted at Try Reason! , saying, “I'm all about getting the most bang for the buck in all my activities - that includes gardening. Picking veggies for the garden is all about finding the greatest value with the l
Read more