From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!soreff@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: sanity, justice.
Article-I.D.: hplabs.505
Posted: Thu Jul  1 10:32:38 1982
Received: Fri Jul  2 03:46:16 1982

Greg Guthrie claims that insanity is equivalent to making "a bad judgement"
which is implied "by the un-lawfullness of the act". There are many scenarios
where commiting an illegal act is a good judgement.
1: Where the person believes the benefits of acting exceed the costs that
   the legal system will impose on them.
2: Where the person believes that the benefits of acting exceed the costs
   that the legal system will impose on them weighted by the detection and
   conviction probabilities.
Greg Guthrie also claims that "The responsibility of the individual is to
maintain sanity...". This seems far too sweeping a statement to me. A few
years ago Army Intelligence or the CIA (I forget which) fed LSD to some
unsuspecting people. I would NOT hold the subjects of those experiments
responsible for their actions while under the influence of the unknowingly
ingested drugs. According to Guthrie's statements, he would hold them
responsible.                      -Jeffrey Soreff