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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
"Obedience To Law Is Liberty"
This is the facade of the courthouse in Worcester, near where I used to go to college. You can click the image for the full-size version, which lets you see what's inscribed above the entrance to the court. It says:
"OBEDIENCE TO LAW IS LIBERTY"
The first time I saw the inscription on the facade, I was stunned speechless. Now, the current building was completed in 1900 [link], long before Orwell wrote 1984, but the statement has exactly the same ring to it as Big Brother's Newspeak slogans: "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength". Moreover, it has the very same political purpose: the subversion of plain language to suit the power of the state.
Now, I'm a big fan of liberty, and a big fan of obeying the law, too (so long as it does not violate my conscience); and there's a very good case to be made that in a democracy, general obedience to the law (which, after all, we, the governed, have consented to) is critical to the functioning of an open, free, and prosperous state. But that's a pretty sophisticated train of thought I just articulated, and it's NOT the same as the simple equation: "OBEDIENCE = LIBERTY". Obedience is obedience and liberty is liberty. I'm sorry, but they're just not the same thing, which should be plainly evident to anyone who gives it two seconds' thought. So what is this inscription doing on top of a courthouse? I see the proclamation of the power of the State, and a redefinition of the emotionally-charged word "liberty", again in a way reminiscient of Orwell ("some animals are more equal than others").
I'm sure quite a few people who have advanced the cause of liberty would disagree with this simplistic formulation. After all, the Founders didn't obey the King's law, did they? Henry David Thoreau didn't obey the tax law. Gandhi didn't obey the English law. Martin Luther King Jr. didn't obey the segregation law. We revere these people as stalwarts of liberty (most of them predating the courthouse) precisely because they didn't obey the law (in very particular circumstances, it must be noted, but still). Hell, Jesus didn't obey Roman law! So don't go telling me that OBEDIENCE = LIBERTY, because it's just Statist bullshit.
And it's really, really, creepy, besides.
This is the facade of the courthouse in Worcester, near where I used to go to college. You can click the image for the full-size version, which lets you see what's inscribed above the entrance to the court. It says:
"OBEDIENCE TO LAW IS LIBERTY"
The first time I saw the inscription on the facade, I was stunned speechless. Now, the current building was completed in 1900 [link], long before Orwell wrote 1984, but the statement has exactly the same ring to it as Big Brother's Newspeak slogans: "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength". Moreover, it has the very same political purpose: the subversion of plain language to suit the power of the state.
Now, I'm a big fan of liberty, and a big fan of obeying the law, too (so long as it does not violate my conscience); and there's a very good case to be made that in a democracy, general obedience to the law (which, after all, we, the governed, have consented to) is critical to the functioning of an open, free, and prosperous state. But that's a pretty sophisticated train of thought I just articulated, and it's NOT the same as the simple equation: "OBEDIENCE = LIBERTY". Obedience is obedience and liberty is liberty. I'm sorry, but they're just not the same thing, which should be plainly evident to anyone who gives it two seconds' thought. So what is this inscription doing on top of a courthouse? I see the proclamation of the power of the State, and a redefinition of the emotionally-charged word "liberty", again in a way reminiscient of Orwell ("some animals are more equal than others").
I'm sure quite a few people who have advanced the cause of liberty would disagree with this simplistic formulation. After all, the Founders didn't obey the King's law, did they? Henry David Thoreau didn't obey the tax law. Gandhi didn't obey the English law. Martin Luther King Jr. didn't obey the segregation law. We revere these people as stalwarts of liberty (most of them predating the courthouse) precisely because they didn't obey the law (in very particular circumstances, it must be noted, but still). Hell, Jesus didn't obey Roman law! So don't go telling me that OBEDIENCE = LIBERTY, because it's just Statist bullshit.
And it's really, really, creepy, besides.
