I certainly do keep the peace and show consideration to others because I believe it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately not everybody thinks like that which is why society has to make laws and provide law enforcement officers to ensure that they are followed (or rather, penalise those who do not follow them). In an ideal world there would be no need for laws to make sure we all got on peacefully but as I'm sure you are aware this is not a perfect world.BjornP wrote:You mark our disagreements out pretty well. We disagree about something as fundamental about the purpose of law. You make no distinction between law and society it seems, which is a convenient way to excuse the individual from any personal responsibility as a participating member of society. If the law is the ultimate arbiter of what's considered polite and proper behavior, words, acts and sexual preference, you don't need to make any individual moral choice of your own. You don't need to make any individual effort to show respect, because the law has already dictated that as long as you don't say X,Y, or Z in an A, B or C way, you're not a bad person who's breaching anyone's peace.Montegriffo wrote:
The law as it works in practise does not simply outlaw hate speech, what it does is outlaw inciting others to hatred. Your example would fall under this and I would agree with it as it would certainly incite others to hate Jews and could easily lead to acts of violence against them. I would suggest that anyone making that statement is already alienated from society.
I would contend that one of the duties of the law is to prevent a breach of the peace and a statement like the example you gave could easily lead to one.
"The peace" is only meaningful when the people choose, when they genuinely WANT to keep the peace between them. It is never the law that's keeping the peace, Monte. When you show consideration to other people, assuming you do, you hopefully don't do that because there's a law either demanding that you do, or because a law punishes you for not doing so.
On the other hand I am reliably informed that there is no such thing as society