What Should Be Illegal?

Column for week of December 16, 2013                              

     The federal government has enacted about 200,000 pages
of statutes and regulations.  State and local governments have
thousands of more pages of laws for you to obey.   You will be
in trouble if you are caught violating any of those laws.

     What is the justification for all of these laws?  The laws
exist because people with power want them to exist.  Should this
be the end of the discussion?  Should powerful people be able to
prohibit or mandate any action they want to?  Should we blindly
do whatever government orders? Is there a standard by which we
should judge all laws?

     If an action is immoral and wrong, Should we do it
simply because government so orders?  If an action isn't
immoral and wrong, Is it wrong to do it simply because
government says, If you do it, I will hurt you?  Was it wrong to
help fugitive slaves escape to Canada?

     If we have no standard for judging the law, might makes
right.  We must unquestioningly do whatever the powerful in
government order.  If the law says, Kill your neighbor for
spiting on the sidewalk, you can be punished for not killing your
neighbor.

     If you accept that there is or can be even one law that
should be disobeyed, you have accepted the principal that we
have the right, and even the obligation, to refuse to obey some
laws.  The remaining question is, What standard should we use
to judge the laws?

     Every society has its rules of conduct, whether is has a
government or not.  Stable human interaction would be
impossible without rules.  How would you like to live in a
society where there was no common understanding that random
nose punching wasn't acceptable.

     Anytime people have continuing interactions with each
other rules of conduct evolve.  When most people recognize the
value of following a rule, the rule needs little enforcement.  Peer
pressure will back the rule when enforcement is needed.  If
government enacts a law reinforcing a desirable rule, few will
object or disobey the law.  Such laws will have popular support
and not be divisive.

     Government can, and does, enact laws contrary to popular
practices.  Such laws are enacted for the benefit of the powerful
people who support the laws.  Usually such laws exploit others. 
Thus, they aren't prime candidates for popular support.

     Government is few.  The people are many.  No
government can long survive without having at least general
acceptance.  Thus, government likes to instill the idea that it is
immoral to disobey any law, even if the law is immoral.

     Unless the people recognize the pitfalls of blindly
following the law, government will run muck.  Before we can
judge the law we must have a standard by which to judge.  I
fear that as a nation we are straying from any common standard. 
If we don't soon find a common morality, the future will be
bleak.

     It is beyond the scope of this column to even contemplate
a moral standard.  It does matter what standard people chose.  
A counter productive moral standard can be worse than none. 
The standard we seem to be migrating toward today is based on
do unto others before they do unto you.

     In seeking a useful national moral standard we should
keep two points in mind.  That which is immoral when done by
private individuals is still immoral when done by government.  If
an action is moral it isn't rendered immoral by government
forbidding the act.

     Most laws today don't reflect an accepted standard of
morality.  The main reason for obeying these laws is government
will hurt you if you don't.  As one nearly insignificant example,
Who believes it is immoral to put two flowers in a vase and sell
them in Louisiana without the difficult to obtain permission of
the state?  Why obey such a law, other than to avoid being hurt
by government?

aldmccallum@gmail.com

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Copyright 2013
Albert D. McCallum