priddy on sat 1 jul 00
Warning: rantlike musing on freedom and pottery
> It's my belief that true civilization can only exist when the liberties=
of
> the individual are sacrosanct. =
But freedom, unbalanced by resposibility, leads to irrational disorder, c=
haos.
I don't care for chaos, myself. That is almost what we have now
with regard to standards. Freedom has little value in and of itself.
Randomness is the absolute extreme of freedom. Sometimes it is beautiful=
,
mostly it is chaotic and not beautiful. The responsibility, unfortunatel=
y,
frequently has to come from outside the individual, ie the state, due to =
the
inherent unwillingness to give up freedom for order. The perfect system =
would
somehow balance our freedom with responsibility appropriate to the
circumstances of each case in question. =
In America at least, we are working on it. The laws are coming regarding=
the
sales of pottery and liability of the potters for damage (like in japan-m=
y
gallery guy with the scratchy footed leaking pots, will be one of the fir=
st
bankrupted by this). Just make sure you are involved in the lawmaking! =
Keep
it rational, but don't rely on individuals to self-regulate. They won't.=
We
know this because we have tried it historically, and it never worked (thi=
nk
Ghenghis Khan, attilla, hordes, mobs, LA riots).
Potters are just people in the end. I think we are better people for hav=
ing
potted, but we are still free individuals running amuck. Better that we =
unify
and regulate ourselves with some standards before somebody does it for us=
=2E =
And better coming from us than consumers via lawyers.
Oh but wait this would involve organization and that limits freedom and w=
e
can't have that now can we?
"freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose..."
respectfully submitted,
elizabeth priddy
priddy-clay@usa.net
http://www.angelfire.com/nc/clayworkshop
____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=3D=
1
Norman van der Sluys on sun 2 jul 00
Elizabeth,
I don't think legislation is the proper solution for the order that you seek.
Legislation is like Microsoft software - inefficient and designed for "average"
situations. Situations that do not conform to the "average" produce unwanted
results more often than not. The law is a proper medium for some things such as the
leaching of toxic substances, but the marketplace is the best mechanism for sorting
out the good from the bad. It is impossible to legislate away all risk, as well as
undesireable. For example, a stoneware mug is liable to break if it falls from a
height or is thrown and hits a solid surface. When it breaks, the shards are
sharp. This could cause injury. Shall we legislate that pottery either must be
unbreakable or, when it does break, the resulting fragments must ge round?
I used to run a small country cider mill, but had to close because of regulations
coming out of the scandal about cider contaminated with E-coli. Now the mill in
question was one that produced millions of gallons of cider a season, as compared
with my 10,000. The fruit was harvested under vastly different conditions by
people who could care less about the quality and safety of the produce. That mill
probably had most, if not all of the newly required equipment, and if not, could
easily afford to invest in it. The result is that my custom blended cider,
utilizing old varieties chosen for flavor rather than price, is no longer available
to the public. Many small operations in my state closed as a result of this. Do
you want this to happen to pottery? Or do you produce "unbreakable" or "safety"
mugs?
Norman van der Sluys
priddy wrote:
> Warning: rantlike musing on freedom and pottery
>
> > It's my belief that true civilization can only exist when the liberties of
> > the individual are sacrosanct.
>
> But freedom, unbalanced by resposibility, leads to irrational disorder, chaos.
> I don't care for chaos, myself. That is almost what we have now
> with regard to standards. Freedom has little value in and of itself.
> Randomness is the absolute extreme of freedom. Sometimes it is beautiful,
> mostly it is chaotic and not beautiful. The responsibility, unfortunately,
> frequently has to come from outside the individual, ie the state, due to the
> inherent unwillingness to give up freedom for order. The perfect system would
> somehow balance our freedom with responsibility appropriate to the
> circumstances of each case in question.
>
> In America at least, we are working on it. The laws are coming regarding the
> sales of pottery and liability of the potters for damage (like in japan-my
> gallery guy with the scratchy footed leaking pots, will be one of the first
> bankrupted by this). Just make sure you are involved in the lawmaking! Keep
> it rational, but don't rely on individuals to self-regulate. They won't. We
> know this because we have tried it historically, and it never worked (think
> Ghenghis Khan, attilla, hordes, mobs, LA riots).
>
> Potters are just people in the end. I think we are better people for having
> potted, but we are still free individuals running amuck. Better that we unify
> and regulate ourselves with some standards before somebody does it for us.
> And better coming from us than consumers via lawyers.
>
> Oh but wait this would involve organization and that limits freedom and we
> can't have that now can we?
>
> "freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose..."
>
> respectfully submitted,
> elizabeth priddy
>
> priddy-clay@usa.net
> http://www.angelfire.com/nc/clayworkshop
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
>
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