Public Opinion Says Loaded Guns in Cars Are OK [INFOGRAPHIC]

I cannot speak for Sean, though I think I understand where he's coming from (and, yes, I agree with you. The whole sex == rape idea is downright creepy).

But he is looking at the world from a radically different perspective. One that's worth at least a little thought. If only because it *is* so different than most. My opinions about your points:

1) Mostly irrelevant. Though this sort of thing would probably require everyone to spread out and be members of much smaller communities. People just were not meant to live packed together like sardines.
2) Why would muggers make the effort? If everyone has all they want, the only reason for mugging anyone else (or any other sort of theft for that matter), is the sick pleasure of being a bully. If your community is small enough that everyone knows everyone else, people like this won't last long.
3) He *is* talking about a world of abundance. Why would anyone bother looting if they could just get whatever they wanted without any real effort?
4) The *vast* majority of "criminals" have no victims. "Our" legal system doesn't really benefit anyone except the lawyers and the megacorps. It is a failure. There are tons of alternatives we could (and should) try.
5) Back to #2. If there's enough to go around for everybody, there isn't any real reason to steal anything from anybody else. If anyone's going hungry, it's because so is everyone else.
6) This is true. Since before recorded history, people have been telling each other "Thou shalt not..." and then going ahead and doing it anyway and getting punished for it. The punishment is a slight deterrent, but it obviously isn't very effective. It seems to me that a common sense approach, focused on restitution for the victim might have a much better chance at success. If that doesn't work, recognize that, note it, and try something else.

There *are* ways for people to live together mostly in peace. The proof is that they did so for so long. We've just mostly forgotten what they are.

If you haven't seen it, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is well worth watching and thinking about.

It is an interesting plan. I think it's sad that it pretty much inevitably gets dismissed so quickly. I just happen to disagree with that particular piece of it.

This is a perfect example of why a one-size-fits-all society is doomed. We can agree to disagree. If we can get enough people to do that, we can set up our tribes (or join existing tribes that make sense to us) and find out which sets of rules are the most successful for us.

That was the original theory behind having different sovereign States with a very small and limited federal government. Let the States experiment and find out the best approach to a given problem for them. If one successful meme is obviously a winner, the rest can mimic it. If not, it isn't a big deal.

That's the main theme behind the Daniel Quinn books, BTW. The entire reason our culture is so screwed up is that everybody believes there's One Right Way for everyone to live. If we can just find that, everyone will be happy. We've been trying this for 10,000 years now, and we've almost wiped out all the other cultures and their knowledge and experience about hundreds of thousands of years of a way to live that works for them (which ours really doesn't, for us). (Not to mention all the species we're driving extinct along the way).

Personally, I don't have any problems with alternative sex practices. The people who practice them may very well have severe chemical imbalances, or just be genetic dead-ends. Whatever. I understand that they don't have any control over what turns them on, and they don't want to be "fixed," (even if that ever becomes possible) so I'm not going to get upset about it. AFAIC, the only "real" sex organ is the brain.

Like you, I'd probably draw the line at pedophilia. Is it always, inevitably harmful to the kid? I don't know. Parts of our culture have practiced it pretty openly for hundreds of years at least. I don't like those parts, but it's something that worked for them.

As for the magic age of 13, that's as arbitrary as 18. I figure the actual age should be puberty, but that seems wrong to me as well. The idea of old men having sex with a battered screaming 13 year old just strikes me as disturbing as Hell.

Maybe that's the criteria for rape: was it consensual? Maybe there isn't any way to avoid false accusations is to get a time-stamped recording of her agreeing before-hand. That seems to be the direction we're heading now. With those thugs in costumes treating the victims as if it were their fault (I know your stance that it was).

If the social stigma against sex goes totally away, there will be far fewer reasons for people to accuse falsely. It isn't a perfect solution, but that's sort of the point.

There *is* no perfect solution to all our problems. There are just ways to live that work.