15.4.2006
What do you do if you are an agency and you want to elicit some response
from people, but there is no legal basis for doing so? You use logic instead
of law. After all, the force of logic is supposed to be absolute, isn't
it?
Today I got a letter (already the second of its kind since I moved to
another town at the beginning of the year) from the notorious GEZ (the
Gebühreneinzugszentrale, which licenses the use of TV and radio
broadcasts in Germany).
Now, the thing is that I have not been watching TV or listening to the
radio for about ten years, and I have no plans to do so. Therefore I am
under no obligation to get back to them and register myself, and of course
I'm squarely under no obligation to pay. So, this means I would just ignore
that letter? Not so with the GEZ. In their world, it seems, there can't be
such a thing as a person that doesn't watch TV. They would just keep
asking.
Some years ago, I made an experiment: I filled in their form and sent it
back, noting that I didn't use any receivers. That made exactly no
difference - I just got another letter every three months or so. So I sent
a somewhat angry reply, demanding that they should point out why my first
reply wasn't enough. That kept them away for about six months, and then
they started over with the series again.
Surely, now that I live somewhere else, that should have given it a
break? Naively I had supposed they would need a bit of time to find me
again, but it seems they are well connected with the Einwohnermeldeamt
(or registration office, which exists in every town and where you have
to register if you move there permanently). They needed barely a month, and
here I am, getting those letters again.
And what about the "logic" and "law" thing I mentioned at the beginning?
Today's GEZ letter contained a very interesting request. It said: "Please
respond even if you believe you have no obligation to do so." So, I may
perhaps think that my not having a TV set means I don't have to
license it's usage, but who knows - better check back with them.
And then I started to understand. Of course, there is no legal
obligation for people like me to reassure them every three months or so
that they still have no TV in use. But, if you argue cleverly, you can
construct a logical constraint that does the trick. The reasoning goes
thus:
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1) For all people, they either think they have an obligation to
answer the GEZ letters, or they don't think so.
(Since this applies to everybody, at least in Germany, this means that
all people exhaustively fall either into the one category or in the
other.)
2) Those who think they have to respond should of course do
so.
3) Those who don't think they are obliged to respond should
respond anyway.
Therefore: Everybody should respond.
| |
See what I mean? You don't need a legal basis to create the impression
of an obligation, you just need a bit of logic. Thus, maybe I should not
try to resist that intellectual force. Maybe I should better get down and
tell them once more. I'll think about it ;-)
