And if I wasn't such a silly libertarian, I'd want something done about people who annoy me by asking me for money!
A good example was an email I got earlier from ebay, cleverly designed to make it appear that I had just bought something, even though I hadn't. While it was only a minor annoyance, I dashed off an angry email to a friend:
While junk email and spam are irritating enough, there's something especially irritating about getting it from ebay -- especially when the subject line "ScreenName, you bought this on eBay" makes it seem important.
I don't like people who want my money.
And, as was made abundantly clear in the advertisement, these people wanted my money!
I thought it over and I wondered whether it's really enough to merely not like the fact that there are people who want what belongs to me. If I wasn't a libertarian, I think I should want to do something about it.
Like a law, perhaps?
Before laughing this off, bear in mind that the idea that it is wrong to want someone's money is not new. In fact, it goes to the heart of morality, it was written into the Ten Commandents, and it boils down to four words:
Thou shalt not covet.
While I could write a satirical essay about enacting the Tenth Commandment into law, I have yet to meet anyone -- sane or insane -- who would suggest it be made illegal to want what someone else has.
But if I wasn't a libertarian, what a wonderful feeling it would be to know I could call the cops every time someone asked me for money -- whether in person or in an advertisement.
Actually, coveting has been criminalized from time to time -- a notorious recent example being Khmer Rouge Cambodia. But this was not based on biblical law, and I have been unable to find a single example of any government which actually wrote the Tenth Commandment into an enforceable law.
The last Commandment for Jews and Protestants (which forms the last two commandments for Catholics and Lutherans) is an admonition against coveting. This text illustrates yet one more way in which the Ten Commandments are antithetical to the American legal and cultural experience. The King James Version of the Bible of this text says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, . . . Nor anything that is thy neighbour's [sic]." This Commandment seems to stand in opposition to a capitalist, consumer culture that has long been at the root of American life. Whole industries - advertising, automobiles, clothing, and cosmetics - are predicated on the idea of wanting what your neighbor has. Americans learn from an early age to "covet they neighbour's house" and two huge industries, real estate and home building, thrive because of this. We even have a tax code that subsidizes this covetousness. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is a tried and true aspect of American culture. The prohibition on envy found at the end of the Commandments may be an ethical goal of Judaism and Christianity, but it can hardly be seen as part of the foundation of either American law or culture.
A lot of what we call morality involves what I'd call shoulds. Ideals and principles by which we'd be well advised to live our lives.
I've often wondered whether the Tenth Commandment is there as a reminder -- not of law, but as a reminder that there are limits to law.
As to the idea that not all matters of right and wrong are proper subjects for human legislation, I happen to agree with that idea -- regardless of whether it came from God.
posted by Eric on 05.03.07 at 12:10 PM
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Comments
I've never seen eBay send such an email.
Sure it wasn't some Phisher pretending to be eBay?
(Or, rather, I assume it was, but that wasn't expressed clearly in the post?)
Sigivald · May 3, 2007 01:47 PM
No, it's not phishing. It's from ebay, and I verified the links. I've never gotten junk like this from ebay before, and at the bottom it says this:
"eBay sent this e-mail to you because your Notification Preferences indicate that you want to receive information about Special Events & Promotions."
I've been using ebay since 2000 and I've never gotten an email like this until today.
So I had to change settings by going through my preference settings and "unchecking" a whole slew of boxes that I don't remember being there to check when I first signed on in 2000. (I routinely refuse such "notification offers.")
Things like this have a way of just appearing, and I think ebay is more and more engaged in aggressive marketing tactics.
Frankly (while I can't prove my suspicions), I'm concerned that some high volume ebay sellers may be selling customer lists, and this might account for some of the irresistibly low priced items. The names and contact information of buyers may be of more value than a discount on an item.
Some things aren't necessarily as cheap as they look.
You think that's bad?
Try donating to charity. You'll never hear the end of it.
I have to disagree that all advertisement is coveting. Done properly, advertising is education.
I agree scams and demands for money could be considered coveting.
But I think some of the examples you cite - automobiles, real estate, etc. - are examples of a product or service being offered in exchange for money to people who want and need those items. Everyone in America has benefited from a car or truck. Everyone in America has lived in a house. Companies that buy media exposure to educate the public about the products and services they offer are not coveting their customer's money. They are offering an exchange.
I also agree that "keeping up with the Jones'" is coveting and I think that advertising that focuses on that aspect is encouraging coveting.
But not all advertising. Not even most.
_Jon · May 3, 2007 03:20 PM
Coveting is a little different than "keeping up with the Jones". That would be wanting something like what the Jones own.
Coveting is to desire that individual object(or person), not something similar or even better!
flicka47 · May 3, 2007 04:57 PM
You don't need a law.
Just report the e-mail's to the appropriate place:
Go to Mythusmage Opines. Scroll down and on the right side you will find a PayPal button. Click on that button and you will be sent to my donation form. Enter whatever amount you wish, so long as it's at least $5.00 U. S., and click on "submit". Your donation will be applied to the purchase of a new iMac. That is the only promise I make, and it is a promise I can keep. Donate generously, and always remember to deal with people who are upfront about what they're doing.
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What?
I agree with flicka47 (04:57 PM) on the meaning of "covet". For most of human history, there were no mass produced goods available. The only way to get what someone else had was to take it. In this sense, "coveting" is a direct precursor of stealing--the eighth commandment.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I've never seen eBay send such an email.
Sure it wasn't some Phisher pretending to be eBay?
(Or, rather, I assume it was, but that wasn't expressed clearly in the post?)