Happened to find this article ⚠️ ↗ on the net, about a series of experiments that confirm the "Broken Windows" theory - that when people see one broken window that has not been repaired, they tend to think it is ok to break more windows, because no one cares. It continues with that idea and shows that when one social norm is violated, many people think that it is ok to violate other social norms. (In other words, most people have no internal moral compass worth mentioning.) As these experiments show, this quickly extends to theft and serious crimes.

And shortly thereafter, on the same site, I found an article about DEA agents breaking the law by using an informant who was actively participating in torture and murder. (These murders occurred in Juarez, Mexico, and all but the first could have been prevented if the DEA had taken action.) No one was disciplined for this, except the one man who attempted to stop it.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/128893.html (link ⚠️ ↗)


If this were an isolated incident it could be dismissed, but it is not. It says something very sad about the state of American society and in particular American government. It also says something very disturbing about human nature, because I hardly believe that this is exclusive to the United States.

All this makes me wonder about how we can establish and maintain a functioning and prosperous society. Obviously standards must be set and maintained, yet the majority of people seem to be too dumb to understand a simple rule like "do no harm", and too weak to implement it. A person who really understood such a rule and implemented it would not litter in an alley already covered with litter, because even though the additional harm would be small it would still be additional. But most people cannot deal with that, and so harsher laws tend to be enacted, and before long harmless activities have been outlawed, resulting in an unfair loss of freedom to people who are not doing any harm, because they want to prevent the masses of stupid people from misinterpreting things and doing harm. I have seen this in action: if one man is working and makes a temporary mess which he will clean up in 15 minutes, others will see the mess and presume that it is ok for them to litter, since the first man is already (in their weak minds) doing so. Or if one person creates temporary graffiti with chalk which the next rain will wash away, you can be assured that some idiot will presume that since one person is already doing it, it is ok for him to bring out his spray paint and do a proper job of it - and even though the first artist was drawing flowers and sunshine, the second will feel free to draw any offensive thing he wants. That's just how people are - mostly stupid.

That said, it is comforting to know that in these studies a large number of people did not alter their behavior when they believed that others were ignoring social norms, and that there were significant differences in the numbers who ignored pointless rules and those who ignored rules to the detriment of others.

Still, it makes me wonder what we can do to encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior, without lapsing into restrictionist policies which are just as harmful (or moreso) than the behaviors we seek to prevent. Restrictionist policies can carry a double whammy - if they are utterly unreasonable and obviously harmful, they will soon break down any respect the public has for the rule of law while doing nothing to prevent the bad behaviors they were originally intended to prevent.

If only we could find a way to increase the number of intelligent people who are committed to doing right by others, while reducing the number of idiots and those who care nothing for others. Then we might reduce the discrepancy between what is required by law and what is required by liberty.