[MD] The Greeks?

[Matt Kundert]

> Very un-Mattish, Matt ? What brought that on ?

Meh, I figured Mary told us about the movie she saw, not 
really apropos of anything, so I would, too.

> Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the enslavement of fools -
> as true in sport as in life. The spirit of the game is more important
> than the formal rules, rules are for those who don't know how the game
> is played. The law is often an ass. I don't believe fairness resides
> in the rules.

Very un-Ianish, Ian?  Why would you side with George W. Bush?

Rules are there, not so they never change, but so that 
everyone can be sure that they don't just up and change 
according to the whim of the powerful.  The spirit of baseball, 
for instance, is that the fallible umpire has the last call.  The 
umpire, like the judge in law, is the embodiment of the law, 
but they most certainly cannot swing free of it.  The rule of 
precedent, stare decisis, which is Latin for, "this better have 
some goddamn reference to the rules of the game as they 
presently stand."

I have no trouble with philosophically understanding rules, 
like principles, as codified wisdom created from the heat of 
experience.  But in the immediate context of a particular 
situation, why isn't your response to my declamation about 
rules being the basis for justice and fairness open to 
Bush--"heh heh, rooles are made to be broken, heh heh."  
The practical wisdom of sometimes breaking rules to create 
new wisdom cannot itself be a rule, insofar as it alone 
cannot be the pretext for breaking them.

No, I think fairness does reside in the rule of law, and 
fairness, in this sense, is a recent, precious commodity that 
doesn't exist in much of the world even yet.  We have lots of 
fools and a few wise men, but when the fools think they're 
wise--that's when we need rules that everyone is committed 
to abiding by.

Would you want somebody cutting in line for your daughter 
or son or wife or husband or bestest buddy/sex-partner's 
liver transplant because they had enough money to break 
the rules?  They assumed that you'd have the wisdom to 
keep enough cash around for such things, and that it was 
perfectly fair to use money this way.

Matt
 		 	   		  
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