From: homer@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Homer Smith)
Subject: Re: SOCIAL ORDER
Organization: Me
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 14:45:03 GMT

 
     Every functional operating system in existence depends upon some
measure of order to continue its operation.
 
     The amount of order in the biochemical structure of the body is no
less than incredible, and even our computer systems are put together and
networked with a form of well thought out order that took years to
develop.
 
     People would not settle for less than excellent order in these
matters.
 
     A social system is no different.  It has a purpose, a functionality
and an end product just like anything else that works in this universe.
And like everything else it depends on a certain measure of order for
the smooth operation of its parts, so that people can dependably produce
and deliver their product, communicate with each other, and share and
enjoy their art with their friends.
 
     People accept the order necessary for their bodies and their
computer systems to work, but seem to have a hard time when it comes to
accepting order in society.
 
     If your body had the amount of order that some people would like to
see in their social anarchy, your body would fall into pieces all over
itself in a minute.  You would barely have time to reach the toilet.
 
     So no, I am not suggesting that society become a Nazi Youth Camp,
nor even a Boy Scout Club, but I am suggesting that if you intend to
remove a major section of the present order, you had better be prepared
to replace it with something of equivalent or better functionality, or
else you will have another French Revolution, where the aristocracy and
intelligentsia were was murdered indiscriminately and the remaining
blokes didn't know how to shovel manure.
 
     For example, if drugs were legalized, what would happen to the
economies of the many countries whose existence is bolstered by the
illegal drug trade?  They make a lot of money BECAUSE drugs are illegal.
Are you prepared to deal with the foment there when they all start
starving to death and bombing American offices and buildings in
retaliation, possibly with nuclear weapons or bacteriological warfare?
 
     Is there ever a time when an organ, though still functioning, is so
cancerous that you can't just go cut the cancer out with out having the
whole thing fall to pieces?
 
     The point is, is it possible that the U.S. is being held hostage to
keeping drugs illegal by internal and external criminal forces that
would keep drugs illegal because of all the money it makes them?
 
     You may be prepared to take on your own corrupt politicians,
because a people are always bigger than those they elect to power, but
are you ready to take on the corruption in the entire rest of the world,
a world that surrounds you and can effectively cut you off from
communication and succor from anyone else?
 
     What would happen if the U.S. were the ONLY country to fully
legalize drugs?  Would this create some sort of global political,
economic, scientific or religious imbalance that might swing the wrong
way really hard?
 
     The world is like a house held up by rotten timber.  Are you
prepared to pull away one of those rotting supports to fix it hoping
that the others won't give way crashing the whole thing down on your
head?
 
      Going in and digging out a cancer from a society is just as
dangerous and just as delicate work as digging out a cancer from a body.
Witness the fall of the Berlin Wall.  We were lucky that time, as the
flood of humanity rushed out of its confines and redistributed itself
into a new equilibrium.  It could have been a lot worse.
 
     I am not suggesting that the Berlin Wall should not have come down,
it's time had come, nothing was going to stop it from happening, and
nothing SHOULD have stopped it from happening.
 
     In a like manner the time will come for the legalization of drugs
too, possibly soon and just as suddenly without warning.
 
     I just wish someone had a degree in social planning around here.
 
     Homer