"Laws, good people don't need 'em, and bad people don't obey 'em, so what good are they?" ~ Utah PhillipsAside from the sheer black and white philosophy of that statement, the old folksinger brings up a good point. What good are laws, anyway? Do they really serve a purpose in society? Some say that civilized society is impossible without laws. Do laws create order or impose harmful restrictions that devalue society? Many say laws create order, and do no harm.
Let's take a look at how society creates, abandons, and lives with law, order, and the justice system. And let me take the time to explain to you why all of this lawfulness is simply not necessary.
Say what?
"Did you just try and tell me society can thrive without laws?" Yes, I did. You see, the average person uses history, and the overwhelming abundance of law as their rock solid argument for the benefits of it, as well as the reason for it's introduction into human society. I would like to argue however, that there is a difference between Law and guidelines or "rules".
The former is what we are accustomed to in modern day society on a broad scale. It is "Law and Order", it is "Crime and Punishment" it is a formidable justice system designed to take once reasonably resolved issues and relegated it to largely detached groups known and lawyers, and judges to determine one's fate.
The latter is what we know as "house rules". We are all quite accustomed to this concept, right in our own little nuclear villages known as our homes, and families. No one ever seems to connect the adaptability of "house rules" on a slightly larger scale to create a world of both order and stability without the nasty side effects of a State driven hierarchy.
Side effects? Yes, that nasty habit of power developing out of the need for law and order. Power is corruptible, ergo, hierarchies are also inherently corruptible. The two, of course, feed on one another and cannot really be separated. Corruption of course leads to oppression, and oppression leads to slavery, and well you get the idea. Laws also have a nasty habit of breeding into ever more constrictive policies, thus restricting humans from living even their own private life they way that they see fit.
Besides, laws don't even work.
Laws don't actually prevent very much at all. The threat of legal action looming over society's head does very little in the way of keeping people out of trouble. What it does do, is exact revenge for those who do not wish to conform to the laws of a society, no matter how arbitrary.
If law worked, we would have a nearly crime free society. Instead we are inundated with crime, even more so than before. Countries with liberal laws tend to have less crime over all. One reason for that is the mere fact that many behaviors are not criminalized so that people who are behaving in ways that don't affect society aren't clogging up the entire system, and preventing bigger problems from being rectified. There is another reason that I will address in just a moment.
Laws only react. Reactionary techniques have failed mankind on almost every level, for the most part. Specifically with regards to the prevention of anything.
Do laws harm society?
It is my opinion that they do. Give me a minute to make my argument before you run off screaming about silly Anarchists and their wild ideas. While the general premise of establishing some sort of ethical code is a commendable ideal, the forcible institution of said ethical codes based on the opinion of a few and possibly even the arbitrary can and does harm society.
First and foremost, the Law as we know it requires a force of people given the authority to decide what is right and what is wrong without the consensus of the people subjugated to that power. As I have mentioned, power is corruptible, as we can see in our legal system. The power to control these laws on a local level means giving enormous amounts of power to men and women who are just as corruptible as the next man. This kind of power holding and corruption is harmful to society. Just as the abuse of a person by their superior is abhorrent on a personal level - so too is it abhorrent on a larger societal level.
The second reason is because the Laws are ever increasingly restrictive. So much so that it delves into your personal life, and personal decisions that have little effect on anyone but yourself. By criminalizing otherwise harmless behavior the "system" is then overburdened with petty crimes and complaints and has to use what little resources it has on that, rather than on larger, more serious problems in society.
Third, it focuses on reaction and punishment, rather than prevention and reward. If we, as a society, could get our act together and actually teach people why we should behave in certain ways, rather than simply telling everyone what will happen if we don't, we could feasibly have a self sustaining crime free society. That of course, requires a great deal of personal responsibility however.
Speaking of personal responsibility...
Although many people disagree with me on this point, it's my point so I'll make it if I want to. Laws take the responsibility of behavior out of the people's hands, thus creating a black hole of personally developed ethical and moral codes beyond some very basic codes of character. It is, as some people call it, the "Nanny State". The governmental hierarchy that establish laws across any given country begin to take on the role of a parental figure, dictating what isn't acceptable behavior, and threating punishment if we don't behave ourselves. (This isn't the part most people disagree with, however). I personally see this increasing Nanny State as the reason and the need for more laws, and heavier restrictions. You know, to keep us from hurting ourselves, as it were.
As the Nanny State continues to tell us what we cannot do, for our own good, it fails to tell us what we can do. It lures us into a false sense of safety, many times making life more difficult, and even more dangerous. Many people have adopted an ideology that is "If it isn't against the law, it must be OK to do". When pondering a situation they ask "Is it against the law? No, OK then, I guess we can do it". It seems to me that I rarely see people actually examining the situation, and behaving in a way that is beneficial to society, regardless of what the law says.
As more and more people adopt this ideology, they continue to do things which are without any sense or thought, they get hurt, and thus create a new need for a new law. We are tainting the learning curve here and creating a vicious cycle.
"Well the company never told me I couldn't use this product this way...". "Well, gee I didn't know it wasn't safe to do that, there was no law saying I couldn't...."
There oughtta be a law!
As fun as that is to say, the unfortunate truth is that many people see other people doing dumb things, and they say it, and sooner or later, wouldn't you know, there is a new law, or regulation addressing that same idiotic behavior.
What was my point again? Oh yes - by continually telling people what they cannot do, and creating more laws when people think they can do something they really ought not do, we are dumbing down society, and all but relegating personal responsibility to the far reaching corners of the globe. This is very harmful for society.
Responsible behavior is much easier to lose, than it is to regain.
So what then, you ask. Do we dive into a world of animal instincts? No, of course not. True "lawlessness" is not possible in modern day society for the very reason I mentioned above. It's like a drug, we can't seem to live without it. It could be possible, with an awful lot of work and a serious weening period, but we would descend into chaos if we tried to go cold turkey.
It can work however. Remember those "house rules' I mentioned in the beginning? Yes, you can use those, and begin to recreate or reestablish a society that is ordered and communal, lawless yet safe. Since many people think that it is the law that separates us form the animal kingdom, I would like to say one thing: Animals don't have laws, but they do have "house rules" and the animal kingdom does seem to be doing better than humans, at the moment.
What does separate us from the animal kingdom is our ability to learn, and evolve and progress through those evolutions in rapid fashion. Humans adapt to new situations very quickly, and have a creative and ethical streak that when combined with some old fashioned common sense should be able to moderate themselves.
At the very least.
We, the individuals who make up society, are selling ourselves short and underestimating our ability to do the right thing every time we make, or support a Law. Throughout history we have been told, sold, and forced into believing we cannot live without it to the point that the notion of necessity has been bred right into us.
Don't believe me? Take a look at remote tribes who function in a manner that is so foreign to us Westerners that we call them "primitive" or we pity them in some way. Yet the are surviving, living, evolving, and create worlds to live in that are nearly free of "crime" justice systems, regulations, and even gender and race barriers. They live fulfilled lives without everything we have right here, right now, and seem to be happier and safer because of it.
In many ways, they are better off than we are.
Stop selling yourselves short. You decide what is right for you.
