Man Bites Blog

This post triggered the following thought…

I propose a new political party, the Original Sin Party. The organizing princple of this party will be that all humans are subject to Original Sin, and that given an incentive to engage in behavior that is contrary to the common good, some of them will respond to that incentive. And even if there is a class of people that are currently perfectly wonderful, if you introduce such an incentive to that group, it will attract some people who do not share the current class’s impeccable morals.

No class of people are exempt. Not doctors, not public school tachers, not soldiers, not cops, not bureaucrats, not politicians, not parents. Nobody. I am sorry if you are a member of that group and are personally insulted by the implication that you would engage in antisocial behavior, but get over it. I’m sure you’re wonderful. That doesn’t mean every member of your group is, or that they always will be.

Some conclusions of the Original Sin Party sound like common sense, but appear not to be:

• If you authorize torture, you will get more torture.
• If you legalize and de-stigmatize abortion, you will get more abortion.
• If you order your criminal justice system toward gaining convictions, you will get some wrongful convictions.
• If you raise a class of people to a status where they are immune from criticism, some of them will leverage that for their own benefit
• If you lionize wartime presidents, more presidents will go to war.

Probably not a catchy concept for a party, especially comapared to the “you’re really smart; those that disagree with us are immoral morons” that both current parties are peddling, but I think it’s closer to the truth.

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