Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Our House, My Rules - Less Wrong

36 Post author: David_J_Balan 02 November 2009 12:44AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 November 2009 06:22:43PM 6 points [-]

Sane libertarians don't say it is nice. They just say that the problems are not automagically fixed by saying, "Let's have the government pass a law against..."

Comment author: James_K 03 November 2009 04:21:45AM 1 point [-]

For one thing, politics is basically the rules governing conduct between people who are treating each other as members of different tribes. In this environment "nice" isn't really a likely outcome, given human moral sentiments.

Comment author: wedrifid 03 November 2009 04:47:29AM 5 points [-]

politics is basically the rules governing conduct between people who are treating each other as members of different tribes

Politics is primarily a within tribe tool.

Comment author: James_K 04 November 2009 04:55:49AM 3 points [-]

The definition of "tribe" is very flexible, at least as how it applies to human moral sentiments. I'm talking about psychological tribes, not literal ones (hence the slightly awkward phrasing in the passage of mine you quoted)

The law is principally about how you deal with people you don't really care about. You generally don't look to the law to work out how to treat your family or friends (and when one does, its generally considered a bad thing). The law's primary purpose is to control how you treat people you have no strong affiliation with. Humanity does not have a happy history when it comes to dealing equitably with strangers or near-strangers.

Comment author: wedrifid 04 November 2009 05:42:14AM 2 points [-]

The definition of "tribe" is very flexible, at least as how it applies to human moral sentiments. I'm talking about psychological tribes, not literal ones (hence the slightly awkward phrasing in the passage of mine you quoted)

I'm talking about psychological tribes too. That is where politics finds it's primary home. To the extent that families and friendship groups act like tribes, they too have politics. As do offices.

As for laws, well, that's slightly more complex, made more so when our inter-tribe and within-tribe moral systems get somewhat blurred by circumstances.