I consider the argument convincing that in many cases people actively seek a set of norms to conform to ("Who's supposed to go first at this intersection") and the barrier is just establishing that norm and making it widely known
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Traffic I guess is a good source of examples of this Like the most basic "rule of the road" (do you go down the left or the right side) is "self-enforcing" once it exists, and it's kind of arbitrary which one it is
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Replying to @arthur_affect @christapeterso
So, I take it
@christapeterso's point isn't that we need coercion to enforce the law in every instance; lots of folks will follow the law based on accordance with immediate inclination. I have no inclination to murder, so complying with that law is pretty easy.1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
But the coercion is still necessary for enforcement when folks run up against it; the thing about the traffic cases is that the laws in those cases aren't just about conformity, either. They're also about dispute resolution when there's an accident.
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Replying to @thephilosotroll @arthur_affect
I take "enforcement" to mean like... if necessary compliance will be forced
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Replying to @christapeterso @arthur_affect
Right; it's just the cases where you have someone going full toddle "I don't wanna follow the law today!" In theory, if there's a public reason, all rational individuals should comply with it... but... I've never for the life of me understood why I should buy that.
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Replying to @thephilosotroll @christapeterso
Well okay if the word "coercion" and the word "enforcement" are synonyms then her statement is false just on the face of it, yes
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But assuming there is some difference between the two words I kind of feel like "the rule of the road" is an example of a norm being passively "enforced" without someone going out of their way to directly "coerce" you
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Like I specifically see "rules of the road" being used as a metaphor to mean situations like that Like it's not that I'm shaming you to drive down the right side and not the left, or persuading you, or making you feel bad
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My physical presence in my car driving down the right side is itself an incentive for you not to drive on the left side, it physically creates the danger of a disastrous collision But I'm not deliberately seeking you out to punish your for a crime, I don't even know you exist
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We all just passively "vote" for whether the right side or the left side is correct based on our actions, and once one side "wins" it is a law "enforced" very harshly with steep potential penalties, but no one is formally *making* anyone do anything
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