Re:Mozilla Wants Young People to Consider ‘Ethical Issues’ B...
by guerrilla on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @02:52PM
(#22121319)
> I'm not convinced by this argument. The status quo may exist because there are fundamental issues with changing it. Those issues don't go away with wishful thinking. Attempting to change things while praiseworthy may end up do more harm than good. At the best, if it doesn't end up changing the status quo, you just wasted energy, and bothered other people. But much more likely seems to me that we are trading some pros/cons for others, it's not a strict improvement or even an overall improvement.
Can you imagine yourself arguing this in feudalism or the USSR?
Re:Mozilla Wants Young People to Consider ‘Ethical Issues’ B...
by grotsnot on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @04:24PM
(#22122215)
The USSR very much came about due to a bunch of people deciding that the status quo had to go
Re:Mozilla Wants Young People to Consider ‘Ethical Issues’ B...
by guerrilla on Thursday January 23, 2020 @12:37AM
(#22125119)
As did its end.
Re:Mozilla Wants Young People to Consider ‘Ethical Issues’ B...
by drdeca on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @03:29PM
(#22121666)
Well, what if you were under feudalism or under the USSR, and decided that the problem with the status quo that you should try to solve was not “we don’t have plentiful enough food” but rather “people need food to live at all”.
One wouldn’t succeed in changing this.
Of course, some conceivable changes to the way things are, are both possible to achieve, and are overall beneficial to make.
Some changes are impossible (or effectively impossible) to make, and some are possible but have costs which outweigh the benefits.
I suppose the question is determining, or estimating, which is which.
(Though, I suppose the question isn’t just “what proportion are you right about as to what category they fall under” but rather, what is the average benefit and cost (and I suppose also the variance and other moments?) of your pursuit of the changes you choose to persue.)
I'm not convinced by this argument. The status quo may exist because there are fundamental issues with changing it. Those issues don't go away with wishful thinking. Attempting to change things while praiseworthy may end up do more harm than good. At the best, if it doesn't end up changing the status quo, you just wasted energy, and bothered other people. But much more likely seems to me that we are trading some pros/cons for others, it's not a strict improvement or even an overall improvement.
If one tries to analyze attempts at change that failed there are lots of common patterns. One of them is being ignorant of the fundamental reasons why the issue you are trying to change is the way it is. Being ignorant of the reason behind that makes it much more likely you will fail at your task.