# Smapti is Pitted **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907 "2014-05-21T08:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 39
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/761 "2014-09-29T22:57:51Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > {…} the amount that the city charges {…} > [@Smapti](#): > > Garbage collection in this area is controlled by a private corporation. I hold no civic obligation to them. Ahh, so “the city” is a private corporation! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/762 "2014-09-29T23:26:37Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Who said anything about wealth? I love _life_ more than I love liberty. I’d rather be alive and “licking the hands that feed me” than be dead and… nothing else, because then I wouldn’t exist anymore. > [@Sam Adams](#): > > If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. I would rather not exist at all than live my life subservient to a tyrant. The founders mentioned liberty and the pursuit of happiness because those are the things that make life worth living. Absent those things, you don’t have life, you have mere existence. Existence without life is pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/763 "2014-09-30T06:07:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “But I can’t find the Government’s sole!” But even Richard Nixon has got sole… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/764 "2014-09-30T08:03:46Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Ahh, so “the city” is a private corporation! > > CMC fnord! I misspoke and said city instead of company. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/765 "2014-09-30T08:07:41Z")
> [@CoastalMaineiac](#): > > I would rather not exist at all than live my life subservient to a tyrant. The founders mentioned liberty and the pursuit of happiness because those are the things that make life worth living. The founders WERE tyrants - hypocritical, slave-owning, the richest people in the country, giving lip service to abstractions like freedom and equality in order to get lower taxes for themselves and establish an oligarchy where the 99% were powerless. Our country is great in spite of them, not because of them. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/766 "2014-09-30T08:08:51Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > But seriously, seek help. There may still be time. Help for what? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/767 "2014-09-30T11:08:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Help for what? For having a philosophy of life that has been a huge part of the most destructive acts of mass murder, genocide, persecution, brutality, etc., in history. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/768 "2014-09-30T12:05:18Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > For having a philosophy of life that has been a huge part of the most destructive acts of mass murder, genocide, persecution, brutality, etc., in history. It’s not a philosophy, it’s the facts about how the world works. Pretending that it doesn’t work that way won’t make bad things stop happening, and lying to yourself about it won’t help either. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/769 "2014-09-30T12:14:51Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It’s not a philosophy, it’s the facts about how the world works. Pretending that it doesn’t work that way won’t make bad things stop happening, and lying to yourself about it won’t help either. It’s not how the world works. Blind obedience to authority is bad for society and bad for your fellow humans. Blind obedience to authority has been essential for every genocide and atrocity in human history, and has not been necessary for any positive and beneficial actions. If we all demonstrate measured thought when ordered to do something, we can glean the difference between lawful and unlawful orders, and just and unjust demands. Your philosophy makes you a danger to those around you, and a detriment to society. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/770 "2014-09-30T13:03:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It’s not a philosophy, it’s the facts about how the world works. Pretending that it doesn’t work that way won’t make bad things stop happening, and lying to yourself about it won’t help either. We comprise the world. The world works are we choose to behave. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/771 "2014-09-30T14:10:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Garbage collection in this area is controlled by a private corporation. I hold no civic obligation to them. Wow, this is pathetically self-contradictory even by your standards. (Hint: Who decided that garbage collection in this area is “controlled” by that corporation?) ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/772 "2014-09-30T14:12:06Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Wow, this is pathetically self-contradictory even by your standards. (Hint: Who decided that garbage collection in this area is “controlled” by that corporation?) It’s also revealing, in that **Smapti** believes he has no civic obligation to his neighbors and fellow citiziens (like the ones whose trash can he used) – only to the government. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/773 "2014-09-30T14:15:32Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s not how the world works. **Smapti** knows perfectly well that that’s not how the world works. If he actually believed what he said, he wouldn’t have his knickers in a twist – he would instead be serenely confident that this new innovation will crash and burn because it’s incompatible with the way the world works. His position is rather like that of a Talibornagain preacher who thunders that homosexuality is 1)an unnatural perversion and 2)an existential threat to decency and civilization, assertions which are mutually exclusive for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/774 "2014-09-30T15:27:05Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s not how the world works. Blind obedience to authority is bad for society and bad for your fellow humans. Blind obedience to authority has been essential for every genocide and atrocity in human history, and has not been necessary for any positive and beneficial actions. If we all demonstrate measured thought when ordered to do something, we can glean the difference between lawful and unlawful orders, and just and unjust demands. > > Your philosophy makes you a danger to those around you, and a detriment to society. To the contrary; if everyone always followed the rules, it would be impossible for someone to be placed in a situation where they had to choose between obedience and ‘doing the right thing’. Obedience to authority is what wins wars, builds skyscrapers, and put men on the Moon. Defying the government because you believe your personal whims trump the law is how the Nazi party and ISIS were able to prosper. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/775 "2014-09-30T15:28:25Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s also revealing, in that **Smapti** believes he has no civic obligation to his neighbors and fellow citiziens (like the ones whose trash can he used) – only to the government. One’s obligation to one’s neighbors is to obey the law and respect their rights under it. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/776 "2014-09-30T15:30:27Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > **Smapti** knows perfectly well that that’s not how the world works. If he actually believed what he said, he wouldn’t have his knickers in a twist – he would instead be serenely confident that this new innovation will crash and burn because it’s incompatible with the way the world works. 1. Whose knickers are in a twist? I’m being calm and civil here, and I’m not making this personal about anybody. I like you guys. 2. What ‘innovation’? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/777 "2014-09-30T15:32:33Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > To the contrary; if everyone always followed the rules, it would be impossible for someone to be placed in a situation where they had to choose between obedience and ‘doing the right thing’. > > Obedience to authority is what wins wars, builds skyscrapers, and put men on the Moon. Defying the government because you believe your personal whims trump the law is how the Nazi party and ISIS were able to prosper. The choices aren’t blind obedience or anarchy. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/778 "2014-09-30T15:33:47Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Wow, this is pathetically self-contradictory even by your standards. (Hint: Who decided that garbage collection in this area is “controlled” by that corporation?) They have a contract from the city. That doesn’t make them a branch of the government any more than the electric company or Comcast. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/779 "2014-09-30T15:47:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > To the contrary; if everyone always followed the rules, it would be impossible for someone to be placed in a situation where they had to choose between obedience and ‘doing the right thing’. This is false. Rules change and are not always clear. Further, sometimes rules are written poorly and must be violated for public safety or other concerns. > [@](#): > > Obedience to authority is what wins wars, builds skyscrapers, and put men on the Moon. Not your blind obedience. Your sort of blind obedience results in lost wars, shoddy buildings, and failed scientific expeditions. Questioning authority when prudent wins wars and results in superior engineering and science. > [@](#): > > Defying the government because you believe your personal whims trump the law is how the Nazi party and ISIS were able to prosper. No, the Nazi party prospered precisely _because_ of the blind obedience of folks who thought like you do. You would have made an excellent Nazi stooge. And you’d make a terrible US soldier/sailor/airman/marine, a terrible police officer, and if you truly act in the same way your posts suggest, then a terrible American and a terrible human. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/780 "2014-09-30T15:55:51Z")
> [@](#): > > **Waste ReSources** > > We provide residential curbside pickup of garbage, organics and recycling, as well as commercial garbage and organics collection services to large and small businesses. > [http://olympiawa.gov/city-utilities/garbage-and-recycling.aspx](http://olympiawa.gov/city-utilities/garbage-and-recycling.aspx) CMC fnord! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=40)