Lying societies

Just stub for now.

[96 09 02] noted.

I've noticed that parts of society are founded on implicit agreements to treat certain things as true, regardless of the actual truth; perhaps the most noticeable one is that mature people are above the law and can ``make their own decisions'' about, for example, how fast to drive.

Another form of this is ``political correctness'', in which their is an implicit agreement to treat some group as being above criticism (because they implicitly claim, while strongly denying, inability to cope without such protection; it often actually being a lot more convenient for them to do this than to make the effort themselves).

Yet another such agreement is that people don't have to justify their actions.

These agreements help people to feel more comfortable and to esteem themselves much more highly... but are built on sand. How can they protect themselves from being swept away by reality storms?

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Last modified: Sun Jun 10 22:28:51 GMT Daylight Time 2007