Why so many murders?
POSTED BY: Geezer
UPDATED: Monday, April 13, 2026 04:37
VIEWED: 4147
PAGE 5 of 6
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
To put it another way, I think we have a high murder rate because of other economic/ social factors. And while people may turn to religion and/ or the police as a reaction to the problem, neither really resolves the problem.
So how do we resolve the underlying problems? I buy what you're selling but it seems like institutions that have grown more powerful and influential because of the problems have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
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That's a good question. One of the problems that MUST be overcome is the corrosive effect of money on elections. The high cost of getting elected virtually guarantees that those who don't hustle for corporate contributions will be winnowed out of the process. If politicians are free from that influence, they may stop allowing lobbyists to write legislation and actually be responsive to the people who elect them.
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Always look upstream.
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Doesn't most of the money spent by candidates during an election cycle go to advertisements or costs associated with advertisements? How much money would a candidate need to spend if they didn't buy television spots? And it's not just a matter of working to minimize advertising costs. Something would have to be done about ad quality (maybe Madison Avenue companies getting tax credits to do pro bono work for third party candidates or something like that).
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The war on drugs will never end because the economy will go down the shit tubes.
Child pornography, online or otherwise, will never come to an end, because there is far too much money generated making it and combatting it.
We will never, ever be free from disease, even if the techincal knowledge to make this happen exists today or some other day, because the very people making this technology would be putting themselves out of business.
Just a few examples of how nothing good will ever be provided for us if it were left up to governments and corporations without the proles demanding change. My guess, is if any one of those three scenarios were to just magically happen by the beginning of 2008... the war on drugs being won, no more child pornography being created, or all diseases being cured, the economy of the world would implode so grossly that it would make the Great Depression look like a holiday.
They're putting on a good show... but nobody who has any money invested in the market for retirement would enjoy what happened to their portfolio on the day any one of those things were to happen.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack
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6IX- Very cynical but most likely true. Power begets power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
SOUP: I propose that every entity with an FCC license MUST provide free air time to all national candidates who meet a minimum test for viability, a time of the candidates' choosing (not Sunday 2 AM). Just provide each one 15 minutes every month for two months prior to an election. It's up to the candidates to decide whether they want to pool their time, make long speeches, or have a bunch of 15-second clips. With a maximum of about 2000 candidates that's about 48 hours of programming a month. Two days in 30. Compared to the advert and crap on TV and radio, I figure it's a small investment in our collective future.
The OTHER thing I would do is place a moratorium on free access and political advertising one-two weeks ahead of any election. The way things are now, the adverts degenerate into hysteria about a week and -a half before any election. I think the campaign and all the points the candidates have made need some time to "settle"; people need a chance to reflect on and consolidate what they've heard.
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Always look upstream.
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It's a nice idea but it will be struck down as a first amendment violation. Seriously the biggest chalenges to the campaign finance regulations came from first amendment cases I can see a court injunction 30 seconds after the legislation passes (if it ever does remember the people voting for it are the ones that benefit from the existing system and you dont see many turkey's voting for Thanksgiving.)
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There are two parts to my proposal. The first part is requiring the entities with FCC licenses be required to provide free time to all viable candidates. The idea has been floated before, and none of the objections have ever been centered in First Amendment rights. The broadcast spectrum is considered a "public good", and the law requires that those who make use of this spectrum prove to the FCC, on license renewal (each two years) that they have served the "public good". It should be a simple matter to make this requirement part of their license.
The second part- a moratorium on political advertising two weeks ahead of election- would almost definitely run afoul of the Fist Amendment. It prolly wouldn't work, but.... hey, one can dream!
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Always look upstream.
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Quote:No. What it says is that you can’t say that the higher murder rate in the US compared to Europe is a result of greater belief or adherence to religion (which is what Signym seemed to be saying when I wrote that) because the Amish are far more religious, on average, then the rest of the US, but have virtually no murder rate.
Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
Wait a second, Finn. Doesn't that lend more support to SignyM's argument? The Amish take extreme measures to separate themselves from US culture. They're not a great exemplar of the vast majority. About as far from it as you can get.
Quote:I don’t know why you would find that funny. It is that very fact about the Amish that makes them such a strong argument against the idea that religion leads to greater violence. They are almost a perfect controlled experiment (as far as sociology goes), and sociology uses the Amish to draw conclusions about certain ideas concerning the greater population all the time. In fact, the last time I saw my cousin, who is a sociology professor at Georgia State, she mentioned the Amish in reference to the amount of walking that we do in our society. I forget the details of the conversation, but it did include the Amish.
Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
I just found it hilarious that Finn would use an example, in a thread about things that are unique to US culture, of a group who are trying to stay separate from that same culture with every fiber of their being.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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