Re: [Phys-l] OT: Reflecting on Ethics (was A geek's ... "Avatar")

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

Bob raises several interesting issues.

I expect the example that he raises in this post that is easy for most 
folks on this list to relate to, is
the idea of leaving a car on the street, or on one's drive.

There are local people here who will leave a diesel truck running 
outside a restaurant on a chill day.
This represents, I suppose, one end of the precautionary attitudes to 
property that people adopt.
(In the country, tractors may be left running unattended for long 
periods, so it is a habit, I suppose.)

On the one or two occasions when I have stopped a car for a moment to 
drop off a consignment, and left its engine running, I have been acutely 
aware that the police would offer me no sympathy at all if it were 
driven away.: I left it visibly mobile.

The next step is to lock a car when away from it. Locks are certainly 
becoming harder to pick.

A further step in this direction is illustrated by my wife's car: if 
the wind blows too gusty,
it will audibly warn of being molested. Though she tolerates this 
behavior in her own car, when the car
owned by the lawyer who lives across the street, does just the same 
thing - she is much less tolerant.

There are districts apparently, where to leave a car parked is to issue 
an invitation to have it jacked up,  for wheel removal. It would seem 
that locking a car in a garage would be the extra layer of protection 
that one might need in this situation.
In each of these situations, it is my responsibility to provide the 
level of security which will maximize my comfort level, no doubt.

The ethical issue to which I allude, perhaps not very clearly, is that 
if I lay out my prize possessions,
on a table within my property line, adjacent to a busy street, and pay 
no attention to keeping them secure, then I certainly should not be 
surprised, nor feel injured, if some young person finds them 
irresistible. In colluding to make a stranger's theft easier or less 
risky, then certainly the thief is at fault: but I share blame in aiding 
the commission of this theft. This is not a difficult or unusual ethical 
position. Perhaps the Rice philosopher, who sometimes joins these 
discussions could offer
some correction if I err?

I suppose I also ought to mention that someone who uses deadly force to 
try to detain a thief, risks
the most severe treatment that the system of law allows: long 
imprisonment, or capital execution.
Bob undoubtedly knows this.

Sincerely

Brian W

LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
> I really cannot connect the word "ethically" with anything you've said. In fact, I'm not sure I even understand what you said.
>
> I am not a person driven my morality based ethics, but I am a proponent of property rights and contracts (explicit or implied) - these rights are the bedrock for all the wonderful benefits we have living in a western society.
>
> I am tired of constantly having to protect myself from people stealing from me and my neighbors and my employer just because they need drug money or are too damned lazy to be productive themselves. I have had four radios stolen from my car. My daughter's main occupation is as a figure skating coach. She has had her skates stolen twice - costing me over a thousand to replace them each time. I have reported all of this to the police and they just take the report and say there's nothing that can be done. The last time I heard a couple of young men trying to get into my car I got some satisfaction by getting a round off at them from the back door - fortunately I missed, because I would have ended up in more trouble than they would have - but I was so angry I couldn't help myself. Just two days ago I took my brother-in-law to see his father in hospital. When we returned to his house his car had been broken into and band equipment he had put in his trunk for a job that evening had 
>  been stolen. This was in a quiet single-family neighborhood on Cape Cod.
>
> Unlike Brian, I don't see parking my car in my own driveway as an "attractive nuisance". I refuse to take any responsibility for people who steal from me and can find no justification for them doing so (only excuses). Small thefts - big thefts - they all stem from the same disregard or disdain of property rights.
>
> Bob at PC