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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Replying to @arthur_affect @christapeterso
But the point is that the enforcement mechanisms exist as consequences, either for traffic violations or in liability. Rules of grammar can be enforced, but outside of elementary school are rarely coercive.
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Replying to @thephilosotroll @christapeterso
I think that's kind of my point, rules and norms like that are "enforced" in the sense that bad things happen if you fail to obey them - failure to get where you're going, failure to successfully communicate - but people aren't generally making a deliberate act of "enforcement"
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Like it's an important thing in our society that if there's a head-on collision whoever was driving the wrong way is legally at fault But that's not really the main reason not to drive the wrong way, the main reason is to not get in an accident at all
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