[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> It's the law!-Or is it the money?

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

I am not an idealist, God forbid, what made you think so? Also, 
knowing a lot pf people on both sides of Atlantic, I am not so sure if 
just a relative few share my beliefs, but if it is so, it does not prove 
them wrong. The majority of people once believed that the earth is 
flat. Today we all know that the earth is not flat - yet majority of us 
still acts as if it is.

I do not remember speculating that I would act in a life threatening 
situation in a way which is not self defensive. Survival instinct is 
something that comes wired into our hardware, and while humans 
can to extent over-ride those instructions, only in very rare 
occassions any human being would choose to do so in a life 
threatening situation. I have no reasons to believe that I would do 
so. I pledged my readiness to accept risks that may be life 
threatening, but I did not say I would resign myself to them. I would 
fight as good as I can.

We all act within the framework - as if it would be possible to act 
out of it. But not all of us are acting in a way to change the 
framework. Actually, the majority is acting in a way to re-enforce 
the existing framework. And the rest are out of the mainstream, i.e. 
idealistic. I essentially try to act the way I believe. It is sometimes 
a 'collateral damage' that others feel criticized by my beliefs or 
lifestyle.

Declaring the issues of drinking age and speed limits silly, means 
to decide not to devote any resources to change those laws. Of 
course, I agree that I can hardly present those two issues as 
seriously threatening to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Not 
only because one of it (the drinking age) is and can only be 
infracted by adolescents and the other only by the people who 
drive, but because neither are treated as felonies. But they are 
indeed annoyances uneccessary in the land of the free. I used 
them mostly as parables. 

Because I am not a racial minority, my chances to land in a real 
prison are many times too low for me to be able to explore the 
issues that really threaten the fabric of American justice, social 
peace and democracy. On the other hand - teenagers in Texas can 
end up in jail if they were caught drinking for the third time. And 
drivers around the country can lose their licenses, despite their 
families rely on the income that depends on their driving, and 
despite they did not actually comit any crime, but merely broke a 
'silly' law. There are other issues that I didn't mention: three strikes 
you are out that put thousands of non-violent petty criminals in 
jails, mandatory sentences that took away the discretion of the 
judges in sentencing and put prosecutors in charge of justice, zero-
tolerance that crowded prisons with ordinary youth, found in 
possession of a substance legal in many civilized Western 
democracies. Should I go further? 

The immigration laws that threat asylum seekers as guilty until 
proven innocent? The landlord-tenant laws that give 
disproportionatelly more rights to landlords? The labor laws that 
give disproportionatelly more rights to employees in the market of 
ever less unionized labor force? The laws that are discretely 
steered in a way to put more racial minorities and/or low income 
persons in prison - like the Connecticut law that provides for a 
mandatory sentences for people found in possession of illegal 
substances that live in public housing projects? You are an 
attorney in Louisiana, you should be familiar with those things. A 
friend of mine just finished a documentary about Louisiana prisons 
for TLC. 

And you are not right that I am seeking license, not freedom. I am 
seeking freedom, not license. In freedom, licensing is un-
neccessary. But if a society starts from a premise that some 
things simply cannot be left free, then license is neccessary. I do 
not start from that premise.

If we take into account that in sixties Kennedy's were shot 
because of their political activity, and today they die by hitting a 
tree while skiing or driving their sport planes into the ocean, then 
you may be onto something with the James Crotty mockery of 
Nietzsche on Oprah (the mock Nietzsche was right about Oprah's 
show, I think). I also had a chance to die for a 'good cause', 
perhaps, should I have stayed in former Yugoslavia. In the U.S. I'd 
have to risk my life snowboarding over some steep avalanche 
terrain. This sounds more interesting, though, than to resign to the 
less thrilling alternatives that the mock Oprah offers (and they 
sound kind of like the opening of The Fight Club, I am sure Crotty 
is a fan). 

I am utterly confused with his examples of genuine heroism - 
Caesar, Napoleon and Nietzsche?! Caesar and Napoleon were 
unscrupulous conquerors and tyrants. Under present world 
standards they would both be tried for war crimes and crimes 
against humanity, including genocide. One was killed by his peers 
and the other was imprisoned for life by his enemies. In their wake 
they left millions of people dead, displaced and disinherited. Yet 
the history remembers them only as great leaders. Ok, Napoleon 
gave us metric system and canned food. But, what's wrong with 
Hitler, then? He gave us the autobahn! Nietzsche on the other hand 
kind of does not fit with Napoleon and Ceasar in the 'heroes' 
cathegory. Guy was a teacher of classical languages, what on 
earth could he change? Plus, he had a really nasty, non-idealist, 
very mainstream sister that managed to obtain a really bad name 
for him and his most enticing writings. 

Then, if you like Nietzsche's philosophy, you should have some 
simpathy for my view of the over-regulated U.S. mainstream 
existence. It is putting a heavy toll on that bridge that we are, 
between what we used to be and what we ought to become.

Sincerely,

Ivo Skoric
Ivo Skoric
1773 Lexington Ave
New York NY 10029
212.369.9197
ivo@balkansnet.org
http://balkansnet.org


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