Do we live in a tyranny when...

Post Reply New Topic

I started this thread because I was pulled over for not having a license plate on the front of my car. I didn't know that it was a requirement to have one their since I had one in the back. I told the officer that, plus the holes on the plate don't line up with the slots in the grill to mount the plate into. He wasn't having any of it (it was a state patrol, but we were in the city), and I got the ticket, which I'm taking to court.

But I did measure the distance between the holes and drilled new one's in the plate. I also had to buy adapters at the BMV because the fasteners wouldn't fit in their current state.

It does not, to my mind, qualify as tyranny.

The Aristotelean conception of tyrrany was rulership without law, looking to the advantage of the ruler, not the people, and the use of extreme and cruel tactics.

In the west, however, we have rule of law. The accused has the right to confront the accuser, and to challenge the legitimacy of the law. None of these are available to the subject of a tyrant.

One may quite reasonably complain that the complexity of modern society and modern law imposes an unfair burden on the subject--but to equate this with tyrrany is to diminish the circumstances of those who truly do live under tyranny. Would you trade your present circumstances to live under Mugabe in Zimbabwe?

Oh, come on. Did the DMV (BMV?) hand you 1 or 2 plates when you registered your car? Does everyone else in your state use a front plate? Sounds like a simple case of laziness. Hardly worthy of full blown tyranny discussion. Pay the ticket and then pay attention.

No, but if I could roll the dice and randomly start over somewhere else, then yes.



I was given two, but the front plate didn't fit without some extra work. I was just lucky that I have a drill, what about people have no need for tools because they live in an apartment? I've driven coupes that didn't have anything to mount the plate into. At a stop light today, I watched for cars that didn't have license plates on the front and it came to roughly 20% of the lot. A lot of them were older people, so they should know before me, right?

I don't pay tickets, but unfortunately, I pay for parking downtown.

[quote="takemitsu"]No, but if I could roll the dice and randomly start over somewhere else, then yes.

[quote]

I'm interested. Where would be demonstrably better to start over than where you are? Certainly there are particular things that are better in one country than another, but going back to your original question, where on earth could you live that offers greater liberty and self-determination?

Between the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, I see little in the way of distinction. A more salubrious political culture in one might be offset by a more robust economy in the other. All of them, however, share the indicia of a contemporary democracy: rule of law, free and fair elections and a free press.

It's not a tyranny, it's an absurdity.

Takemitsu, do you live in the States? Because if you do, then before you could get a driver's license, you had to pass a written exam. To study for the exam, you were given a booklet - freely available at the local DMV/DOL/whatever-your-state-calls-them office. In it, there are specifications for what is required on each vehicle - in your state, for instance, it would say in the book that you had to have a front license plate on your car. That's not even "ignorance of the law" - that's just not bothering to read the rules.

As for "tyranny":

And "tyrant":


I really don't think any of those apply in this instance.

That's odd. I hardly ever see a car without a license plate in front if it also has one on back. I know some states (used to?) permit that, but Missouri wasn't one (at least not for many years). The plates should be designed for what works with most cars.

For a while Massachussets was issuing one plate sets. The plate was to go on the back. The one plate set was color coded so the cops would know there was just one plate.

ruveyn