[48159] in Cypherpunks
Re: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Fri Jan 26 13:12:00 1996
To: hallam@w3.org
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:03:18 EST."
<9601261803.AA04117@zorch.w3.org>
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:05:26 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
As previously noted, we've drifted off charter, so I will answer in
private mail.
.pm
hallam@w3.org writes:
> Perry writes,
>
> >I am a funny sort of person. I don't believe that governments should
> >be able to do anything that individuals cannot. If it is bad for me to
> >steal, it is also bad for a government official to steal. If it is bad
> >for me to listen in on my neighbor's phone calls, it is bad for the
> >government, too.
>
> This statement commits the logical falacy of type incompatibility. Sets of
> objects are not the same as objects. Organisations of people have different
> characteristics to people. To accord the same rights to idividuals is to igno
re
> the different chaqracteristics of the organisation over the group. In most ca
ses
> we would ascribe fewer individual liberties to groups than to individuals. Th
e
> individual may have freedom of speech but the government official does not. I
t
> is generally undesirable for military personel to enter into party politics,
> thus it is generally undesirable for such people to take part in party politi
cal
> broadcasts.
>
> On the other hand there are casses in which we would wish to give the governm
ent
> more power than the individual. We give the government the right to raise
> taxation for example.
>
> Thus Perry is not only a funny sort of person, he is also entirely negating t
he
> argument that Mill puts forward in "on Liberty", namely that the interests of
> the government and people are not as opposed as might appear, that it is
> possible to divide liberties into those which the state must excercise in ord
er
> to protect the liberty of the population in general and those which the
> individual needs to protect themselves from government and other interference
