https://www.iankduncan.com/personal/2025-02-21-actuarial-murder
I suspect that the modal Imperial would look far more dimly on such attempts at moral abdication, or even diffusion, yes?
Okay, at least in General, Iām going to impose a bit of a moratorium on long-ass articles being posted without at least some rest-of-post.
(This is because in General, it is assumed that they are of some āverse relevance and thus I should perhaps chime in with something relevant. But thereās a limit to my ability or willingness to sort through long text-walls and figure out what the point of relevant context is. Sorry, folks.)
In Random, of course, do what you want.
In lieu of super-detailed analysis, then, let me address what is at least the headline point by just saying that the eldrae in particular and the Imperial meta-culture in general classifies most forms of āsystemic Xā in the same bucket as they do āI was just obeying ordersā, Marxist āmaterial conditionsā explanations, āitās because itās their cultureā, and āthe Devil made me do itā. (And, point of interest, democracy, which is in itself a fine responsibility-diffuser.)
Namely: with utter contempt, inasmuch as these are the excuses weak people come up with to avoid being ever held responsible for anything.
You have free will. You made the choice. You did the thing, ordered the thing, signed off on the thing, chose to ignore the thing, decided to follow the policy/strategy/popular will even though it was plainly obvious to anyone with a functioning ethical system that it was wrong. Itās on you.
(This is why you really donāt want Imperials sitting on the bench at your war-crimes trial.)
As long as the implementation of decisions depends on volitional sophont entities, thereās always a perfectly cromulent responsible party out there, probably more than one.
Thereās a lot more they could argue with in there, but since I donāt know what we care about and much of it isnāt applicable to their context, Iām gonna leave it here.
Okay, at least in General, Iām going to impose a bit of a moratorium on long-ass articles being posted without at least some rest-of-post.
(This is because in General, it is assumed that they are of some āverse relevance and thus I should perhaps chime in with something relevant. But thereās a limit to my ability or willingness to sort through long text-walls and figure out what the point of relevant context is. Sorry, folks.)
In Random, of course, do what you want.
My apologies. I shall work on being better.
Thereās a lot more they could argue with in there, but since I donāt know what we care about and much of it isnāt applicable to their context, Iām gonna leave it here.
To me the article was a look into humanities dysfunction. How we manage, as individuals, and societies, to lie to ourselves about our responsibilities as people. And through this, how authoritarian states can function.
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No worries, and not intended to be aimed at you personally.
Just a plea for context in a busy world.