- Bob Bobinson
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Loose talk is noose talk.
Hello fellow screwers.
Pull up a chair, whip out your pipe, and ready your underwear, because we're about to have a philosophical discussion on the morality of banning in the Bungie Community.
Start off by asking yourself this question: What makes an action bannable? The answer, as you would say, is whatever the rules say. In the rules, specific guidelines are laid out for violations and offenses. Violate a rule, and get banned. Pretty simple, right?
Answer.
I asked you the fundamental reason why actions are bannable. And you replied, in hoping that I would let you off the hook, by simply citing "the Rules". And now, I give you another opportunity to reply to my original question. To which, you will say, it doesn't matter, for we have no rights. Therefore, anything under the sky is bannable.
Good point, I say, but now this leads us to a dilemma. Mainly, if we have no rights, then who has the rights to impose upon us the eradication of our rights? The correct answer would be Bungie.
An assumption must now be made, and if you keep with me, you will see it is the only logical reason for why we have rules in the first place. Bungie makes rules so that they as a company can make sure that their website remains as clean and PR-friendly as possible. What makes something clean and PR-friendly? I say, what is moral. Therefore, the rules are based on the laws of morality. The laws of morality are a group of undefinable actions that bind us all to do certain things. For instance, everyone knows murder is wrong. Even in the most isolated culture, with no other human contact, they recognize murder is wrong. The reason, I speculate, is because of these universal laws of morality.
And now we come to the crux of the issue. Is an action bannable simply because Bungie says it is, or is it bannable just by itself? Please resist the urge to answer the former, by shouting out that we have no rights.
For here is the real issue with both answers: If an action is bannable only because Bungie says it is, then the rules have no foundation whatsoever in moral laws, meaning that there are no "good" or "bad" actions that can be done on bnet. Inherently, what this results in is the complete amorality of the Bungie community. This is so because the rules, and indeed morality are only a result of whatever Bungie decides it to be. By denouncing any universal laws of morality, the end result is an amoral community. Of course, this is not true, and our own moderators show this to be so. They are the modicum representatives of good in this community, and they are not good simply because some Bungie official said they are, for undoubtedly, they are good outside of Bungie, and therefore, good people all in all.
The main issue, though, must be that anything goes under this answer. For what is good and bad can be decided on a whim by Bungie, thus making good and bad irrelevant not only in Bungie, but also in the larger scheme of things.
If an action is bannable in of itself, then the problem becomes another, for now Bungie's omnipotence is rendered moot. For by introducing universal laws of morality into Bungie, Bungie loses the authority to say an action is bannable or not. This is also means that we do have rights, and these rights are inviolable by Bungie for they exist on planar level higher than what Bungie can dictate. Therefore, the entire foundation of bungie.net is a fallacy.
Let us now introduce an example into the field. Is spam a bannable offense only because Bungie says it is, or is it a bannable offense because it is a universally bad action? If the former, then spam would be universally permissible - outside Bungie - and one could spam to one's delight in the outside world. Society has already determined that spam is always bad, and were you to try it on other forums, you would get banned. If you do not get banned, then the forum you are in is immoral (or amoral). If the latter, then spam is universally impermissible. Already you can note the problems with that argument, for that means that Bungie's rules and other governing documents are irrelevant - for if spam is always disallowed, then the rules governing the permissibility of spam are on a higher plane then what Bungie can govern, therefore preventing them from governing on the issue.
Indeed, this is a major dilemma, and I will point out that there is no definitive answer (yet). To those of you who have studied philosophy, yes, this Euthyphro's Dilemma with a twist to make it relevant to Bungie.net. Please don't bring up religion, though, as this is not about that.
So, have at it. To repeat the main question of the dilemma: Is an action bannable because Bungie says it is, or is it so just by itself? And remember, it can't be both... or can it?