Egalitarianism, threat or menace?

[nancylebov]

I'd also run a slight digression and point out that no legal code anywhere in the world has enshrined such arcane rights as the right not to be made uncomfortable, or the right not to be offended. from megpie71 in this thread.

The right not to be made uncomfortable isn't in legal codes, but it's *exactly* what high status people sometimes get to try to enforce. It's rule by whim, not law.

It looks like a lot of people think equality means that anyone (in particular, their own no-special-status selves) is entitled to be a dictator.

Mere speculation, but for almost all of human evolution, higher status people were more likely to have descendants. Have we been getting selected for the belief that all of us are entitled to be in charge?

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Fascinating idea!

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I fear you are only too correct in your analysis of this issue; I just came across this article from a South Dakota newspaper that seems to indicate that a lot of folks do indeed think that one person's objection should be enough to dictate what everyone else in a state can have on their vehicle license plates. Never mind that the Supreme Court upheld my own benighted home state's right to issue "Choose Life" plates to abortion-ban fetishists; don't tell me states shouldn't take sides in a political debate if you're going to allow that sort of nonsense.

[madfilkentist]

Not exactly. There's something in human evolution that makes people want to be in a hierarchy, even if it means they only follow the leader, but there's also an evolutionary incentive to rise in the hierarchy -- better chances to reproduce, and all that. Modern society provides a lot of paths to the illusion of moving to a commanding position.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

How very stupid. Happily, that would not happen here in VA, thanks to a lawsuit some years ago that allowed a man to keep DEMIGOD , which a few people around Roanoke, in or near which he lived, complained about them, causing DMV to try to recall. The courts here found that vanity plates are a form of free speech, and as his were not vulgar, and therefore were permissible.

Vanity Profanity

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

Okay, so if "not vulgar" was the justification for not allowing the state to recall the plates, that implies that "vulgar" is a justification for recalling/disallowing vanity tags (which I thought I'd remembered to be the case anyhow) ...

Which means that it is not okay for vanity plates to be vulgar, but it is okay for them to be profane. Heh. (Which really makes perfect sense actually, when you think about it in separation-of-church-and-state terms, since trying to regulate profanity would implicitly raise the question of whose beliefs are being profaned and who gets to decide -- it just amuses me on a purely linguistic level because of the way the word "profanity" is often used.)

Note that I'm not saying "DEMIGOD" plates are inherently profane (of course, given the preceding parenthetical comment), but for someone to get so upset that they wanted them removed, that person had to have considered them profane.

I Strive To not impinge on Other's Peace

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

I may not agree with their versions of Truth, but I make not a lot of noise, dance above their heads, rape their wives or daughters, or anything like that. And I'll thank them kindly to forego any such conduct.

Sorry to be so fussy.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but this strikes me as reading too much into evolution.

1) In point of fact, there is no evidence that higher status people have more descendants than lower status people.

2) The behavior you describe is a learned social norm manipulated (at least in my experience) accross social classes. I have seen it in the SCA, in fandom, and in a wide variety of circumstances.

3) At its hert, I suppose that all social games derive from certain evolutionary behavioral patterns. But that's an awful long leap.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Actually, "Chose Life" is a sentiment that has been associated with matters other than abortion for thousands of years.

"Behold I set before you the choice of life and death; Chose life, that thou mayst live." Deut.

I once wrote an SF story called "Chose Life" that had nothing whatsoever to do with reproductive rights.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Is the story available anywhere?

[libertarianhawk.livejournal.com]

This book has a lot of cites refuting your #1.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Which of the things I said are you counting as my #1?

[libertarianhawk.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I was referring to osewalrus's:
1) In point of fact, there is no evidence that higher status people have more descendants than lower status people.

Your post I agree with, but didn't have more to offer than RAEBNC. :)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Have you been in an apa?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention--I consider sociobiology highly speculative unless a physical mechanism for the behavior has been discovered. It's ok for just-f0r-fun noodling, but I don't believe in basing anything serious on it.

[libertarianhawk.livejournal.com]

Nope, just seen it as slang. I've sometimes wished for a RAEBNC button on LJ posts. :)

[libertarianhawk.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of it is in the position of Darwinian evolution before Mendel's discovery of genetic mechanisms. There's data and some logical connections, enough to kill some of the competing theories at least.