"I Ain't No Glamour Boy, I'm Fierce"*

http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html

It is long, but it needs to be read.

Somebody has to prevent the wolves from killing the sheep, and some have to teach the wolves that killing sheep does not make the wolves' lives any better. Voluntary forbearance is a concept that every person in any successful society must understand. Unfortunately, there are a many people in America who do not understand that laws are not made by government but made by eternal Truths. Murder is not against the law because the State of Virginia says it is. It is against the law because it should and has to be.

I was conversing with ten intelligent people one night, and the subject of whether the building code required fans in bathrooms was discussed. One faction said that it was not in the building code; the others said that it definitely was. Individuals started calling their architect friends and other experts on the building code. I suggested that the proper discussion was whether it should be part of the building code (and should we even have a building code). Nobody wanted to talk about this normative subject. It was much easier to accept that our government and its laws were always just. I was the only one who understood that if it was right to put fans in bathrooms, then I would put a fan in the bathroom. If it was not right, then I would not put a fan in the bathroom. I did not give a shit (I had to do it) what the bureaucratic building code said.

When everybody accepts positive and pragmatic philosophies, the world has no chance at progressing. All one has to do is look at the economics profession to see where positivism gets oneself.

REM's Up is a great album that no one fully appreciates.

*from Living Colour's "Glamour Boy"