{"id":1869,"date":"2014-10-30T21:34:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T01:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=1869"},"modified":"2014-10-30T21:34:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T01:34:26","slug":"refining-my-position-on-just-about-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/refining-my-position-on-just-about-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Refining My Position on Just About Everything: Don’t Punish Good Folks When Bad Things Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Often it seems to me that many of our laws — and quite a bit of the heated rhetoric I read and hear — derive from a tendency to try to correct or prevent bad things by punishing everyone, including those who aren’t responsible for the bad things. I’m against this.<\/p>\n

\"Community<\/a>
\n(“Community Punishment Workshop,” by amortize, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I first thought about this when I was writing my “If I Were My Own Representative” series, one of which was Part IV: My Touchstone for Voting<\/a>:<\/p>\n

My initial position would be to vote “no” on any bill that had a provision that would hurt some of our citizens, even if it helped some others. I would have to be convinced that the help was worth the hurt; i.e., that the hurt was along the lines as the necessary pain of surgery to correct a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n

If it wasn’t clear what effects some given legislation would have, whether it would hurt some people while helping some others, I would at least ASK. If no one could tell me, again my initial thought would be to vote against it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m coming to believe this in more general terms than just politics: i.e., that in general we shouldn’t blame or punish good people when other people do bad things or allow them to happen. Let me lay out a few assumptions upon which I base this position:<\/p>\n