Vigilantism and the Rule of Law

NB: This post is intended for an audience versed in Ayn Rand's political theory, particularly in her views on the purpose of government and the reasons we must delegate our right to self-defence in non-emergency situations to the government.


NB: In what follows, I'm not considering emergency situations where you don't have time to wait for the government to act. But even in those cases, what I say applies as soon as the emergency is over and you can put the issue in the government's hands.


In his first podcast of the year, Dr. Peikoff answered Trey's question about the legitimacy of the theft in the CRU climate scandal, saying that since the scientists were "aiding and abetting a group of killers" that it was perfectly moral. I'm going to have to disagree with Dr. Peikoff here, based on my understanding of the principle of the rule of law.

In my view, the rule of law is essentially the consistent adherence to the fact that you have delegated your rights of self-defence (and thus only applies when such delegation is the appropriate course of action). Since you have granted the government the exclusive right to retaliatory force, you can't just turn around and decide that in some cases you can take it back and become a vigilante. This would invalidate one of the main reasons for delegating self-defence to a third-party: to ensure the objective application of retaliatory force in society. So long as the government is still a valid government (and the standards for determining when a government has lost its validity are well beyond the scope of this post), you can't punish people for violating your rights, kill a sadistic serial killer in cold blood, steal back property stolen from you by your neighbour, or hack into university servers and steal files. Performing any of these actions would amount to declaring revolution/war against your government, which is an action that should not be taken lightly and, once taken, must be taken to it's logical conclusion: fight until the rotten government is gone or has changed. Half-measures in this realm are attempts at having your cake and eat it to: they admit the desire to benefit from the existence of a lawful, civilized society while rejecting the actions (delegation of retaliatory force) that make such a society possible.

So what if you think that the way the government is handling certain issues in inadequate? Then you should attempt to change the government... Via legal channels. Report a crime, lobby your legislature, write letters to the editor decrying the lack of action, be as noisy, persistent, annoying, etc. as you want, but do it without using force. This may mean that certain injustices are never rectified, but so long as the government is a proper one, that is a price worth paying for the immense benefits gained by being part of civilized society.

So, in regards to the CRU scandal, the question of whether or not the CRU scientists or the government could be legitimately classified as "a group of killers" is irrelevant to the justifiability of the actions of the hackers. Unless the hackers are taking a principled stand against all UK government (which means attempting revolution if they live in the UK, and an illegitimate attempt to declare war on behalf of their country if they don't) and are justified in doing so, they are simple criminals and should be tried as such. This doesn't mean that the government shouldn't be allowed to use the information gained (unless they put the hackers up to it) in order to investigate and possibly persecute any wrong-doing, but the hackers should still be subject to the full force of the law.

There is a side issue which doesn't directly relate to the CRU scandal, but is still relevant to the topic of the rule of law principle. There are many, both in and out of Objectivism, who claim that the rule of law means that all laws of the land have to be followed. I disagree with this interpretation. First of all, at least in America today, this would be impossible due to the completely non-objective, contradictory nature of some law. Try reading the entirety of the anti-trust law, for example, and tell me how I could possibly do any business without in some way violating it. More fundamentally, though, we don't enter into civilized societies under the condition of allowing the government to tell us what to do, we enter into civilized societies under the condition of ceding the use of retaliatory force. So if there is a law which would not entail the use of retaliatory force if broken (such as laws against marijuana, or forming trusts, or selling raw milk), I believe one is morally allowed to break the law IF the benefits to be gained outweigh the risks and consequences of getting caught. If one is caught, however, under the rule of law one must stay within the legal process to fight the case (i.e., no perjury, no witness threatening, etc.), since enforcement and prosecution of crimes _is_ a part of the government's proper job, even if the broken law is illegitimate.

None of Your Business!

Recently, I've been thinking about issues of privacy, personal information, and the like. My concern here is in exchanges between acquaintances and friends that one expects to be rational people, not the the government or private companies' use of information, and within that context I have a question: what is the standard for determining what, if anything, should be kept private? Why is it that no one would blink at me discussing my favourite ice cream flavours on this blog or my twitter account, even if I went into great detail about how the chewy sweetness of the cookie dough combines with the milky wholesomeness of the melting ice cream on my tongue to create an amazing taste sensation, but many would have a problem if I were to even mention in passing what my favourite sexual position was? Does it make sense that many will freely talk about how they recently broke their arm, but would balk and issue fervent warnings of "TMI" before discussing a sexually-transmitted infection or issues with foot fungus? Is it reasonable that friends will gladly tell each other about the gifts they received for the holidays, but will be very reticent to share the details of their current salary? Shouldn't we be happy to share information with those with whom we are friendly and friends? Do the principles of the Objectivist ethics have anything to say here?

In thinking about this issue, I've come up with two answers, neither of which has completely satisfied me:

• The reason we don't share certain things is that others simply don't want to know them. While this may be true in many cases, it simply raises the question: Why don't they want to know? Is it because it's irrelevant? If so, then they can just ignore the information. Is it because it makes them uncomfortable? If so, why? Is it because it's private? That just brings us back to the issue of: what makes something private?
• The reason we don't share some of these things is that sharing them would dilute their value. A particular example that comes to mind is Dagny's reticence to tell her mother about the sex she had had with Francisco in the woods. While I'm not completely sure, I think I could see certain events as being too important (either to a small set of people, or even to one person) to share with others. So I could see the issue with telling people the details of specific events how amazingly meaningful my wedding-night sex was (hypothetical!), but I don't see how this sort of reasoning can apply to topics, such as sex or salary, as a whole.

Thoughts, readers?

Focus, focus, focus!

Note about audience: This post is directed toward those who are familiar with the Objectivist concept of being "in focus". If you don't know what this is, I recommend starting with the Ayn Rand Lexicon link in the first paragraph below.


Since getting settled in and ready for this semester, I've been making a strong effort to stay in full, self-conscious focused awareness. That's not to say that I didn't think being in focus was important before, but I'm making a point of being consciously explicit about choosing to go into and remain in focus. So far, I've learned three things:

1. When I'm fully focused (which needs to be distinguished from concentration, see the third entry in the link above), I can get so much done and be a lot happier about how things are going. Coming from a person who, by the end of his second semester of sophomore year, will have more credits than the average graduating senior, all while being in the OAC, this means a lot. Making a solid, conscious commitment to using my mind to achieve my long-term goals has already made a difference. This isn't to say that I wasn't goal directed before, but I'm starting to add a whole new level of self-awareness to the picture.

2. Focusing is hard! It takes serious mental effort to go into focus (especially in the morning!) and to stay in focus despite all of the things that tempt me to passively drift along. This is a point that's made often in the Objectivist literature, but I didn't really get it until now. Of course, dealing with the consequence of not focusing is even harder!

3. I drift, a lot. While a few days of working on this has already made it a bit better, I still have to consciously remind myself all the time to fully focus on accomplishing my overall goals and the particular task I'm working on. It's often scary how far away from important issues I let my mind go. I'm not sure if this is an issue of concentration (I don't think so, I've never had serious issues concentrating on any given thing in the past), or a broader issue of staying constantly "in the game", so to speak. This is a serious issue, and while I'm heartened that it's gotten better already, I'm a bit shocked to find how bad it is. It's not that I make the conscious effort to shut my mind down, but it's still a problem that I don't have a more automatized "reminder" system set up (I know focusing itself is never automatic, but my understanding is that the frequency with which the question of being in focus or not makes itself apparent is dependent on how committed you've been to being focused in the past, among other things).

Overall, I think this effort is a very good thing, and is something I will continue the rest of my life. If I remember, I may do an update on this issue in a few months.

Read Kindle Books on OSX with Kindle for PC and WINE

Through careless placement in a bag and rough handling by airline employees, my Kindle broke a few months ago. Luckily, Amazon recently came out with an app to read Kindle books on your PC. Unfortunately, there is no Mac version as of yet, though one is supposedly "coming soon". If you're willing to do a little work, though, you can get the PC version working on a Mac (at least on a MacBook Pro running 10.6):

1. Get WINE. Since I already had Fink installed, I just used that, but any of the ways here should work. Note that if you compile from source you'll need to have xcode installed.

2. Download the Windows Kindle app installer. As of this writing (1/4/10), the latest version won't work with this method, but an older beta available here worked fine. If/when Amazon has a new update for the software, I'll try it with the latest version.

3. Open a terminal. An easy way to do this is to go to spotlight and type in "terminal" and click the first result.

4. Assuming the Windows installer is in the Downloads folder, type in the following (don't type the quotes): "wine Downloads/KindleForPC-installer.exe" (NB: While I don't know why they would do this, it's possible that one of the WINE installation methods would neglect to put wine in the PATH. If so, let me know and I'll update this)

5. The installer should automatically rip through the install and then run the program. Due to compatibility issues, things won't show up right yet, so once the install is done close the window that pops up.

6. Back in the terminal, type (again, ignoring quotes): "winecfg"

7. In the configuration panel that pops up, go to the Applications tab. Click Add application, and in the dialog box that pops up go to Program Files, then Amazon, then Kindle For PC, then click KindleForPC.exe.

8. Back in the configuration panel, select KindleForPC.exe and go down to the dropdown box that says "Windows Version". Select Windows 98.

9. Apply the settings and click OK to close the configuration box.

10. Now the application should work normally once run. Assuming you set up WINE with the standard directories (and if you didn't, you know how to modify this), the following command in the terminal will run the program (again, no quotes): "wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Amazon/Kindle\ For\ PC/KindleForPC.exe"

11. Have fun reading!

Resolutions 2010

Well, it's 2010, and Alyssa and I recently sat down and wrote out our New Year's resolutions. Unlike many, I truly think that you can change yourself for the better and that setting out explicit goals is a large part in doing so, so I take these seriously. Without further ado, here are my 15 goals (in no particular order) for the new year (and, in disagreement with Trey, the new decade):

1. Eat better: Especially towards the end of the semester, my eating habits regressed to those of a typical college student, and I have suffered for it. While I am not yet fully convinced by the science behind the evolutionary (I think the term "paleo" should be avoided here) diets that are becoming increasingly popular with Objectivists these days, I do want to implement an evolutionary-lite diet, heavy in meat and vegetables and low in carbs, particularly grains. Eventually, I want to sit down with the relevant journals and really explore the science of this issue, but I just don't have time right now and am not convinced by the layman's arguments I've seen so far.

2. Honor commitments to self and others: I've been really bad recently about keeping the promises I've made, especially when they come with an attached deadline. Whether it's homework assignments, a promise to make a blog post on a certain day, a promise to arrive by a certain time, or a promise to myself to read an interesting article, I've lacked consistency in following through on time, if at all. This seriously needs to change, and I'm going to work hard to not make commitments I may not keep and to keep the commitments I do make.

3. Remove "god", "jesus", etc. from my regular vocabulary: This one isn't a big deal, but I'd like to stop saying "god damn it" in anger or "jesus!" in shock or the like. There have to be better ways of communicating, and at the very least this will give me some needed practice in implementing standing orders.

4. Establish a routine including writing in my journal, blogging, podcasting (first one is in the works!), studying, keeping organized, etc: I've definitely let myself slip with regards to routine. I need to set up times that I will dedicate to doing the things that I want to do on a recurring basis. I'm not sure how regularly I want to do everything yet, but I want to make sure I actually aim for regularity.

5. Work on identifying the causes of and fixes for emotional loops: I sometimes get caught in these loops where I get swamped by a particular emotion (anger, sadness, frustration, etc.) and occasionally spend hours looping the issue in my head before I finally break out. If/when it happens in the future, I want to work hard on figuring out why they start and how to break out of them when they happen (I can usually identify early on that I'm looping, or "grinding" as Alyssa calls it, but I can't stop easily).

6. Manage money better: Through a combination of luck (my parents pay for college tuition, books, clothes, transportation to see them, and give me a monthly allowance, I got a sizeable inheritance from my grandmother, etc.) and hard work (I tutored throughout high school, I got a full-time job this summer instead of vacationing, etc.) I have significant disposable assets for a college student. Unfortunately, I haven't been very good about keeping track of my money, and have recently been spending more than I've been making. I want to stop my needless spending, start shopping around rather than buying the first thing I see, and start working on saving for the future (I want to be financially independent of my parents as soon as possible).

7. Plan more surprises for Alyssa: I consider myself a bit of a romantic and love to leave little surprises to let Alyssa know I'm thinking of her, but since we've moved in together this has kind of dried up. I want to start making a conscious effort to keep that spark going.

8. Start journal-reading habits: In pretty much every path I can see my life taking, the regular reading of scientific journals will be an important factor. I want to get into the habit now for a few reasons: It may take a while to figure out which journals I actually care to read, my courses are getting closer to the cutting-edge and much of the material comes directly from live issues in the literature, it will allow me to trace scientific issues to their roots inductively by following chains of citations and reading the important experiments as they happened, and I want to start getting ideas for real projects I can work on once I'm done with school.

9. Devote time to personal projects: I want to make sure I do the things that aren't immediately related to my schoolwork (learning Arabic, writing hobby computer programs, etc.) I've let schoolwork become my whole life to a large extent, and it's made things quite boring.

10. Attempt to find/connect with local Objectivists: Whether they're actually at the U of R or just in surrounding areas, there must be other Objectivists in the Rochester area. I want to find out who they are and hopefully start a meetup type thing to discuss ideas.

11. Work on handwriting: My handwriting is absolutely atrocious, and I've just accepted it as an unchangeable part of my character for too long. I want to spend the semester trying to write neater whenever I'm writing, and then possibly over the summer meet with a specialist to get it legible.

12. Remember why I care about my work: This last semester, I lost sight of why I actually cared about the classes I was taking and the work I was doing, and it resulted in lack of motivation, poor allotment of time to my various commitments, and frequent stretches of time where my entire life was spent doing work without any joy. I want to get to the point where "why" is always in the back of my mind, ready to be called into focus whenever I need to remind myself.

13. Return to regular sleep schedule: For about 3 years, I woke up at 5 am without fail (unless I had to wake up earlier to catch a flight or something). Having that regular wakeup provided me with a reliable period of time to start my day and forced my sleep schedule to stay fairly regular (If I got to bed at 3 am one night and made myself wake up at 5 the next day, it wouldn't be very long until I was back to my regular 10ish bedtime). This slipped away from me halfway through spring semester last year, and I want to get myself back on track with that.

14. Take the OAC more seriously: The ability to listen to lectures at my convenience combined with some of the other issues I've discussed above has lead to a less-than-desirable participation in the OAC. Considering that this may be more important than any of my U of R classes, I really need to (and want to, I truly enjoy the lectures) step it up.

15. Find some regular physical activity to engage in: In high school, I played ultimate frisbee every Friday (at least) after school (weather no obstacle) and was on the volleyball team. I would also often just step outside and go for a jog around the neighborhood. Since arriving at college, all of this has stopped completely. While there are certainly physical health issues motivating this resolution, I really want to do this because it would be a nice break from my largely intellectual life to have an activity that is mostly physical in nature.

Here's to a great twenty-ten! How have you resolved to make this year great?