I think it’s completely plausible that I expressed myself in a confusing way, so I’m going to try again.
You’re being very clear. “Politics” has several meanings, “related to governance,” and “related to group organization.” The reason governance-related issues are mindkilling is that they are so tied up in group organization and consequently individual identity.
You are interpreting “Politics as mindkiller” to be referring only to governance (e.g. taxes, debt) and the issues that have become caught up in political conflict at the governance-related political levels (e.g. Christianity). What makes this issue mind-killing is not its enlisting individuals as members of “left” and “right” teams, since it doesn’t. This is not very important because people nonetheless identify personally with the issues implicated by SOPA—censorship, freedom, etc. It is a “political” issue (in the broader and important sense) for the same reason all “political” issues (in the restrictive, governance sense) are political issues. That’s what makes it mind killing.
I think we both agree about the politics-is-the-mind-killer thing in principle. With that said, I’d suggest that politics exercises its mind killing power over some issues more than others, at any given time within a society. Some issues inflame political loyalties, but some do not. Race and sexuality are ideologically charged issues in the U.S. right now...
Right now, I’m under the impression that copyright enforcement law simply is not a highly-charged partisan issue for the overwhelming majority of people in the United States...
For most people, intellectual property law is only a mind killer in that it is so boring that it puts them to sleep.
Specificity. You’re not only “on planet Earth,” you’re also in (specific country). Once likewise for city, etc. down to what you are sitting on.
You identify as an opponent of copyright law. That makes it a political issue for you. That most people in your city don’t identify with a side on the issue, or that few personally identify as proponents of the bill, doesn’t make it much less a matter of your identity.
If you were the only person on earth who had an intense hatred for four-letter acronyms (this would be especially odd because humans do weird things like this specifically to signify group membership), your mind would be killed when considering SOPA regardless of the contents of the bill.
Not as such. Rather, I’d like to be a proponent of optimal copyright law. A lot of fundamental law in America is expressed in very strong terms, evoking concepts like justice and freedom and unalienable rights. In contrast, the provision giving the new Congress the power to enact copyright laws is rather practical. The purpose of copyright is:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
So, it’s not that Authors and Inventors have a right given by God (or “Providence”), it’s that a government grant of a temporary monopoly is supposed to have practical effects—“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”
You’re being very clear. “Politics” has several meanings, “related to governance,” and “related to group organization.” The reason governance-related issues are mindkilling is that they are so tied up in group organization and consequently individual identity.
You are interpreting “Politics as mindkiller” to be referring only to governance (e.g. taxes, debt) and the issues that have become caught up in political conflict at the governance-related political levels (e.g. Christianity). What makes this issue mind-killing is not its enlisting individuals as members of “left” and “right” teams, since it doesn’t. This is not very important because people nonetheless identify personally with the issues implicated by SOPA—censorship, freedom, etc. It is a “political” issue (in the broader and important sense) for the same reason all “political” issues (in the restrictive, governance sense) are political issues. That’s what makes it mind killing.
Specificity. You’re not only “on planet Earth,” you’re also in (specific country). Once likewise for city, etc. down to what you are sitting on.
You identify as an opponent of copyright law. That makes it a political issue for you. That most people in your city don’t identify with a side on the issue, or that few personally identify as proponents of the bill, doesn’t make it much less a matter of your identity.
If you were the only person on earth who had an intense hatred for four-letter acronyms (this would be especially odd because humans do weird things like this specifically to signify group membership), your mind would be killed when considering SOPA regardless of the contents of the bill.
Not as such. Rather, I’d like to be a proponent of optimal copyright law. A lot of fundamental law in America is expressed in very strong terms, evoking concepts like justice and freedom and unalienable rights. In contrast, the provision giving the new Congress the power to enact copyright laws is rather practical. The purpose of copyright is:
So, it’s not that Authors and Inventors have a right given by God (or “Providence”), it’s that a government grant of a temporary monopoly is supposed to have practical effects—“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”
This calls for cost-benefit analysis.