I tend to agree that humans collectively need guard rails. It's not OK to hack each other up or steal from each other. That's a given.
Still, the question is how much space is there between the guardrails?
I have lived by a moral code that guides me. I must be doing something right because I have not gotten into any real trouble in my life. (That and the fact that I have never been caught.)
The law only goes so far. When it goes too far it is the duty of the people to break said law and just plain ignore it.
An example of that is the ownership of certain firearms in certain places. Compliance with laws banning them runs well under 10% in these places and that disgusts me because it SHOULD run zero.
There are a few other rules that should be ignored.
Right now in Michigan the governor signed a safe storage act and has instructed teachers to ask students what goes on at home which is clearly none of their business.
As far as I'm concerned any teacher that asks kids anything about their home life should be dragged out of the classroom and be beaten senseless by the parents.
The ONLY thing the teachers should be interested in are obvious signs of malnutrition or abuse. That's it.
Of course a group of fathers beating up a 23 year old woman schoolteacher would result in them being called cowardly woman beaters so she should be handed over to the mothers to dispense justice to.
I pity the schoolmarm that has to deal with six or eight angry mothers. They can be worse than men.
When the guide rails get to narrow it's the duty of We, the People to stretch them out a bit.
I've said this before, and it bears repeating. Anne Frank was hidden by outlaws and ratted out by law abiding citizens.
While I am on topic, most governors are heavily guarded, usually by the state police. I wonder what they would act like if they were not given such protection. Maybe they would be far more apt to leave us alone.
That is the eternal question: Where must the freedoms of the individual bend to give way to the structure of civilization?
ReplyDeleteWe can not harm each other, obviously. But who gets to decide what 'harm' is? A few years back, many would have said refusing to take a vaccine was risking harm to others.