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It is not good for him who makes the laws to execute them, or for the body of the people to turn its attention away from a general standpoint and devote it to particular objects. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests in public affairs, and the abuse of the laws by the government is a less evil than the corruption of the legislator, which is the inevitable sequel to a particular standpoint. In such a case, the State being altered in substance, all reformation becomes impossible, A people that would never misuse governmental powers would never misuse independence; a people that would always govern well would not need to be governed.
If we take the term in the strict sense, there never has been a real democracy, and there never will be. |
✖ Via The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, tr. by G. D. H. Cole, public domain (original publication : Amesterdam, 1792), Book III, chap 4. Here’s the original French text: Il n’est pas bon que celui qui fait les lois les exécute, ni que le corps du peuple détourne son attention des vues générales pour les donner aux objets particuliers. Rien n’est plus dangereux que l’influence des intérêts privés dans les affaires publiques, et l’abus des lois par le gouvernement est un mal moindre que la corruption du législateur, suite infaillible des vues particulières. Alors, l’État étant altéré dans sa substance, toute réforme devient impossible. Un peuple qui n’abuserait jamais du gouvernement n’abuserait pas non plus de l’indépendance; un peuple qui gouvernerait toujours bien n’aurait pas besoin d’être gouverné.
A prendre le terme dans la rigueur de l’acception, il n’a jamais existé de véritable démocratie, et il n’en existera jamais. (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique, Livre III, chap. 4) |
• Jul 29, 2010 link notes tagged:
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We go through life mishearing and misseeing and misunderstanding so that the stories we tell ourselves will add up. Trial lawyers push this human tendency to a higher level. They are playing for higher stakes than we are playing for when we tinker with actuality in order to transform the tale told by an idiot into an orderly, self-serving narrative. |
✖ Via The New Yorker: “Iphigenia in Forest Hill” by Janet Malcolm, May 3rd, 2010, p. 38 An excerpt taken from the fascinating (really) account of Mazoltuv Borukhova’s Trial. The way Malcolm’s puts it could be used, I think, to illustrate the existential implication of “cognitive dissonance”. Janet Malcolm : “(born 1934) is an American writer and journalist on staff at The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (1981), In the Freud Archives (1984) and The Journalist and the Murderer (1990).” (wikipedia) |
• May 10, 2010 link notes tagged:
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TWO centuries after Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-1400s there were plenty of books around, but they were expensive and poorly made. In Britain a cartel had a lock on classic works such as Shakespeare’s and Milton’s. The first copyright law, enacted in the early 1700s in the Bard’s home country, was designed to free knowledge by putting books in the public domain after a short period of exclusivity, around 14 years. Laws protecting free speech did not emerge until the late 18th century. Before print became widespread the need was limited. Now the information flows in an era of abundant data are changing the relationship between technology and the role of the state once again. Many of today’s rules look increasingly archaic. Privacy laws were not designed for networks. Rules for document retention presume paper records. And since all the information is interconnected, it needs global rules. New principles for an age of big data sets will need to cover six broad areas: privacy, security, retention, processing, ownership and the integrity of information. |
✖ Via The Economist: “A special report on managing information: New rules for big data”, Feb 25th, 2010. |
• Mar 21, 2010 link notes [via] tagged:
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The plea bargain is the moment when the case pivoted from the story of what Polanski did to Samantha Gailey to the story of what the system did to him. Polanski’s detractors focus on the first, his supporters on the second, but the two are interwined, and both were shaped by the influence of Polanski celebrity. |
✖ Via The New Yorker: “The Celebrity Defense. Sax, fame and the case of Roman Polanski” by Jeffrey Toobin, Dec. 14, 2009, p. 57 Excellent article on the subject : Toobin makes an explicite effort to restrain himself to the presentation of hard (legal) facts. Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer to The New Yorker. He is also “the author of five books, including The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, which won the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize” (TNY). Check his official website. |
• Feb 26, 2010 link notes tagged:
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