Saturday, July 29, 2017

Who Is Responsible for Social Order?

  Lets just start here. Do you break the law? This is more for the conservative leaning folks who portray themselves as law abiding upstanding citizens. I know liberals don't believe in laws or rules or free speech or the rule of law, I could go on. No, I am interested in those who portray themselves as loving America, standing for the rule of law, hot dogs, baseball and apple pie. It is a good question for everyone pursuing life, liberty and happiness to ask themselves.



  I am an American. I break the law. Scripture teaches me to obey the law of the land. I try, I fail. There are so many laws that we are bound to fail. I am not interested in the "degree" of the crime, you either obey the law or you don't. 56 mph in a 55mph zone is breaking the law. Rushing because you are late or you "just don't like driving slow" is not an excuse. Not using your signal? Law breaker. Rolling through stop signs. When did the definition of stop magically change? Drink and drive? Thats just one arena, how many legal statutes and codes are people breaking in their neighborhood without knowing it because no one has complained......yet. Is a lemonade stand legal? Has it cleared FDA, Homeland security and gotten all the required permits?



  What I am getting at is before you condemn others look at your own front door to make sure you are not being hypocritical. Illegal immigration is bad, it hurts the nation, it proves we are not a sovereign nation. Speeding through a neighborhood may seem innocent, until you hit an animal, car or person. Laws are rules that all have agreed are needed to maintain a safe society. When an individual or group of individuals decide not to obey the law they actually put themselves above the law, as though that particular law really doesn't apply to them. So the truth is you either are a law abiding citizen or you are part of the criminal sect. The degree of your crime doesn't matter, the fact that you put yourself above the law does.


  As you can tell I have been a bit flip here, of course illegal immigration is worse than speeding, of course murder is worse than speeding. The degree of crime does matter.....when punishment is meted out. It also matters that people not condemn others for the very thing they do themselves, irregardless of the semantics. In a free society it matters that people follow the rules. The people are responsible for their own well being and safety in a truly free society.




     How about the ethical end of this problem. There are written laws and rules and then there is the "spirit of the law". Is it enough to obey the law when people are looking and then not obey when no one is looking? Would that be like lying to yourself? Are there laws that just "don't apply to you"? Are you required to follow the laws in your own home? Is our home a "sovereign nation"? It is ok to be annoyed at serious law breakers and then give the people who break minor laws a break? Do you follow the book and letter of the law or do you apply the spirit of the law? Is there a difference?
    So this is my opinion of what the founding fathers wanted when they drafted the Constitution. I believe they wanted to afford the people with as much freedom as possible, with very few restrictions outside of accepted social norms. They wanted people who want and love freedom to engage in freedom. It all starts at home. A successful free society requires people discipline themselves in order to practice freedom. In a free society we have to be good neighbors. In a free society we share ideas and beliefs, we don't impose them.


  If you truly believe in freedom and a free society allow your neighbors to pursue life on their own terms as long as they are not being a danger, nuisance or a blight on the neighborhood. Why do they have to conform to your values? As long as they are peaceful and not a blight what does it matter what they do? As long as nobody is being hurt we should keep our noses focused on our front door making sure we are not a nuisance or blight. There are groups of people in the world who should never be afforded a place in a free society until they fully relinquish their ideology of hatred, they would never be good neighbors just a constant threat.
   We are all Americans or immigrants who love America. Yes we do have enemy within the borders. Enemy aside, we need to allow our friends and neighbors to pursue life, liberty, justice and the American way on their own terms as long as they are not violent or anti-America. We the people need to manage our society and social freedom, politicians are irrelevant. The people are responsible for maintaining our social order, politicians do the misappropriation and mismanagement of money.
 

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