Glen -
Preamble:
Politically, I've been interested in the (false?) dichotomy between
individualism and collectivism. Professionally, I'm forced to be interested in
the dichotomy between fields vs. particles, as well as processes vs. objects. I
think it's interesting to study the boundary between special cases and general
trends. Individualists tend to argue that there is no such thing as "the
average person", that every case is special. Collectivists tend to argue that
large scale patterns do exist and, if harnessed, can lead to economies of scale.
Well said (as usual).
My (slightly facetious) Point:
It seems to me that with populations of _thousands_ or more for most
demographics, we're beyond individualism. We can no longer consider
individualism a pragmatic approach to any domain. Choose any demographic...
from professional gamblers to classic car enthusiasts and you get a
statistically significant population. Sure, there remain methodological
problems like sampling. But as long as the base population (6 billion?) is so
high, aren't most special cases arbitrarily approachable with general trends?
And if so, then do we still need/want things like jury trials? Who cares about
the specific details of the interactions between Zimmerman and Martin? Can't we
just say that Zimmerman is _enough_ like 80% of the upstanding citizens out
there and Martin is _enough_ like 80% of the disenfranchised teens out there to
rule without the jury?
I think that is precisely what the general public (and media and policy
people and ... virtually everyone except maybe the immediate family and
friends of Zimmerman and Martin(RIP)) do. They evaluate the situation
based on their perception of the probabilities, the likelihoods, and the
implications to their specific word views...
I think ultimately this is all the legal system (in the large) can
do... Perhaps a Jury trial can (it certainly is intended to?) reduce
this, but not eliminate it (especially in the context of media circusing?).
- Steve
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