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Old 07-30-2019, 08:21 PM   #41
Agemegos
 
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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Well, it's no different from assassination for pay, which we already have… but we still try to make it difficult to achieve. Sure, the guy who wins the bet will get investigated… but he now has an entirely legal way to get paid for the assassination.
Another variant would make terrorism self-funding.
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Old 07-30-2019, 08:24 PM   #42
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This one is an adaptation from Andromeda's Nietscheans* but actually a rather plausible custom. It is considered an honor not only to have venerable ancestors but a worthy ambition and sometimes a duty to make one's posterity proud of one.
That would make infertility a heavy affliction, unless it were acceptable to make adoptive and surrogate descendants proud.
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Old 07-31-2019, 05:04 AM   #43
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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Another variant would make terrorism self-funding.
Crowdfunded murder/terrorism - if someone/something is sufficiently unpopular, lots of people make small bets that they won't die/be blown up, and someone will eventually decide they like those odds.
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Old 07-31-2019, 08:01 AM   #44
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That would make infertility a heavy affliction, unless it were acceptable to make adoptive and surrogate descendants proud.
That would, though it is not without precedent as anyone whose gone to Sunday School knows. However I was thinking of it in terms of fictive kinship, affinity, extended kinship, as well, making it bearable if a bit hard to be a batchelor uncle or maiden aunt. Also political adoptions and fosterage is practiced spreading reputation laterally as well as vertically (The blood-parent who makes a good negotiation is always mentioned in a political adoption).

I was essentially thinking of extension of the honor-code beyond the known world. The basic idea is that honor and shame which extend to associates in this universe are believed to continue to do so.
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Old 08-01-2019, 04:42 PM   #45
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That's not really a difference, though. There's already an entirely legal way to pay assassins. Give them money. Nothing illegal about that -- or any of the other ways to exchange value that are routinely used in contracts.

What's illegal is the assassination. Same thing here. This society would just throw in a law that says it's illegal to profit from a crime (we already have those, after all).

Also, they might declare that it's a crime to pay out to winners if they're found guilty -- possibly also if the event is under investigation for a crime. (Feel free to invent your own variations). In some cases, this would lead to a refusal by the market-makers to cover some types of events simply because it wasn't worth the trouble or the chance of being turned into an accomplice.
From what I've read, there is a difference... at least in some legal systems,
It is unlawful to pay someone to perform an unlawful act, which, usually, is conspiracy. In some places, the crime of murder for hire is where the act of paying counts the same as shooting at them and missing. Plus also costs you (permanently) the cash.

Lots of reality TV showing various places in the US where the police have been informed by a purported conspirator that someone wanted their help to find a hit man, resulting in the go-between introducing them to an undercover officer, and the arrest being made upon payment. (The murder is usually simulated, often with the assistance of the would be target..)
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Old 08-01-2019, 05:49 PM   #46
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at least in some legal systems, It is unlawful to pay someone to perform an unlawful act,
Certainly another possible remedy the authorities in the setting might adopt. Compare with the crimes of soliciting drug purchases or prostitution. Solicitation is (in the US, at least) a separate crime from the actual criminal act being solicited, so it doesn't matter whether that crime is actually carried out or not. Just asking someone to commit a crime may itself be criminal. Related categories of "inchoate" crimes include conspiracy, attempted X (where X fails), and aiding and abetting.

The equivalent of the "dark web" in the setting presumably includes some sort of cryptocurrency and anonymizers making it hard to track down the actual individuals involved, so the authorities might want to push responsibility onto the websites themselves, adding the middlemen to the list of associated criminals.
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Old 08-12-2019, 09:49 AM   #47
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

The dynasties of shipcats are kept like those of prize horses. It is a custom to keep portraits of the cats that watched for vermin on previous ships in a series.
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Old 09-05-2019, 10:18 AM   #48
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This came after a rereading of Systems of Survival. What if there was a way to dress to signal to oneself and others a change in social roles?


Different articles of clothing are worn according to the activity one is engaged in. For instance a high-class person might wear a Derby in the exchange, a Balmoral for semi-formal to formal dress, and a tricorne for a miltia parade.

Some of the idea came from reading of the Chinese owner of a general store in a Malayan town who would often sell on credit. The problem was that Malay are expected to look openhanded-but a store manager cannot survive if he doesn't collect. So he dressed Chinese at payment time and dressed Malay the rest of the year.
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Old 09-05-2019, 10:42 AM   #49
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Not particularly curious. Simply an adaptation of a fairly common custom.

High Status people can work for a living but are limited in their work. That is typical. However this is loosened from our memory of rather strict and snobby ages. Their work must reflect dignity on their status and their family as well as show Fair Play to fellow citizens. For instance it at the very highest of statuses it might be considered gauche for a prince or princess to work in law enforcement in their own town but permitted in a foreign police force (because that would necessarily involve them personally in shackling people and doing that on their own fief is improper). Hospitality is a very proper work when done with dignity (so classy hotels are all right, seedy drinking dives not). Taking part in trade is permissible but not competing with fellow citizens (so owning an in-town store is not liked but getting a position on a long distance cargo vessel or caravan is because they compete outside).

Like the above some of this is an adaptation of Systems of Survival. However it contains some of my own interpretations. Shun Trading and Shun Force are mirror images of each other and to some degree just mean Thou Shalt Not Steal. After alla considerable number of the examples of shunning force were about abstaining from armed robbery, and a considerable amount of Shunning Trading was not using an office for personal reasons. But some Guardian jobs are also to undignified for Guardians of higher status to do. I won't say Queen Elizabeth would rather die than be a guard at a woman's prison. I will hazard a guess that that is not her idea of an ideal vocation. Thus Shun Trading also is another way of saying Be Ostentatious, Respect Hierarchy, or Be Exclusive.

This is reflected in the set up I have made. Allowing high status people to trade on a level considered dignified but not to deal in certain goods (probably anything "yucky") or compete with fellow citizens outside certain limits (unto a stranger thou mayst lend usury), reflects some of my own ideas as well as Jacobs'.
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Old 09-06-2019, 08:53 AM   #50
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

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Different articles of clothing are worn according to the activity one is engaged in. For instance a high-class person might wear a Derby in the exchange, a Balmoral for semi-formal to formal dress, and a tricorne for a miltia parade.
We already have the expression in English- "to wear different hats," or "I'm wearing my lawyer's hat today." Although I'm not clear on what historical customs it refers to.
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