Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Laws and morals

“ I live by morals, I don’t live by laws,” he went on. “Laws are something made by assholes. ”

- George Hotz, Sony, and the Anonymous Hacker Wars

4 comments:

Aquila ka Hecate said...

Ethics. I live by ethics.
I think it was Theodore Sturgeon who defined the difference as something like:
"Morals are the society's laws which make it possible for society to get along with the individual. Ethics are an individual's laws which make it possible for the individual to get along with society."
Societ's morals leave something to be desired.

Love,
T in J

david said...

Mmmmm thank you, very clear difference between them. Yes morals are social conventions, but i'm not sure i agree with Sturgeon on this.
A doctor has ethics, a lawyer should be ethical, and a taxi driver is unethical. But that is not to say the driver is immoral, or the doctor moral?

Ethics is itself a collection of laws and guidelines. Morals (IMHO) is a more flexible framework which never needs ethics ... or rather ethics is what you turn to when you have a moral dilemma.

Society has many laws, much to say on ethical behaviour, no morals, and apparently a lot of assholes.

*grin*

Myself, i'm over being "an individual", itself having a dual nature, for interacting with society. Prefer being i, me, it, this. Now, here, nothing else actually means much outside my own head, which is very very small. ;-)

Semantics, gotta love 'em!!!

Have a fantastic day good lady!
peace and love

Desert Dreamer said...

This reminds me of a quote by Lierre Keith.

"The task of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much personal integrity as possible; it is to dismantle those systems."

Laws are made by those who oppress...

david said...

Lierre Keith *googles*

Curious. I do like the quote. Is it necessary even to actively dismantle? Sometimes it would be nice to just ignore them, and have them return the courtesy.

Not likely ... but nice thought ;-)

peace