[geeks] FW: [rescue] UPS Recommendation

[Frank Van Damme]

On Thursday 17 July 2003 17:18, Kurt Huhn wrote:
> What about illegitimate?  I'm not familiar with the work, so I can't
> comment really, but what about people that don't care to follow the
> philosophy?

It's been a while for me too ;-) . In any case, Weber was sure power couldn't
survive without legitimation - which in turn comes from people having an
affective or rational belief in a norm, or if the norm originates from a
source whose legitimacy is out of question.

Which doesn't mean the whole system collapses if certain individuals don't
follow the norm anymore. What is important for the legitimacy of a norm is
that generally people accept what it prescribes as binding.

I think it must be about the same with guns and gun laws. As long as people
generally live peacefully with a law that forbids guns, there is no problem.
I don't know if Weber ever wrote something about anarchy, but I suppose if
crime got out of hand so far that the legitimacy of the police/government/...
suffered from it, the population would probably start wiping their feet with
gun bills.

Still, at the moment, goverments are a pretty widely-accepted fenomenon, so I
don't see a reason to transfer the use of violence to unthrustworthy
individuals who claim legitimacy for their posession of guns.

--
Frank Van Damme    http://www.openstandaarden.be
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Je pense, donc je suis breveti."