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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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My five minute pro-blackmail segment appeared on the Stossel show Thursday:
I gave a simple version of my gossip-plus argument. Alas they cut the part where I made it personal, telling John Stossel that, with legal blackmail, be would personally have to be more careful. A moment of delicious silence followed.
My Stossel Clip
Can we get EY to play Harry?
Gossip regulates behavior, so does blackmail. Gossip is amateur, blackmail is professional. So perhaps laws about blackmail are more about keeping behavioral norms regulation amateur in the private realm, and professional in the public realm - managed by governments and the law courts. It's more related to demarcation of power and responsibilities than efficient processes.Implicitly, people who support anti-blackmailing laws must support this delineation of powers, but why?