Click here to go back to Articles and Views main page
Our Government Goes Too Far
first published- May to August, 1997
The "Rule of Law"
I do not advocate anarchy. The "rule of law" is indeed part of the proper role of government. I think, however, that the federal government should restrict itself to making laws that are based on one bringing immediate harm to another. Violent crimes, theft, restriction of another's freedom, etc. These should be situations that are clear-cut, objectively judgable events - he did or didn't do it, period, and almost everybody completely agrees that it's wrong.
Rape is a crime - drug use is not.
Questionable matters of harm ("a power plant is damaging my kids' brains") should be settled in civil court. We should probably have an equivalent "public prosecutor" service, as well as "public defenders," to those who qualify. The judge would make the call as to whether the case was justifiable, and the jury of peers would make the call as to who harmed who, and how bad.
If a community or a family thinks a drug user or dealer is harming them by their self-negligence, or by ruining their neighborhood, they can sue them. That way we wouldn't need omni-nation morality laws. This could take care of drug use, tobacco & alcohol sales and advertising, unpopular business practices, prostitution, gambling, and more. If a community thinks a business should be punished for firing people or moving out of town, they can tell it to the jury. And prove direct harm. If harm can not be proved, then the defendant shouldn't be punished.
-Government interferes with our Interdependence
Some thoughts from Stephen Covey:
"When we're interdependent, we work cooperatively with other people. We seek their welfare as well as our own. We discover that people working together multiply their abilities in ways that aren't explained by simple mathematics. We experience both the emotional richness of close interpersonal relationships, and the practical rewards of teamwork."
This type of situation is what I believe to be ideal; I think that this ideal is made unachievable by an extensive outreach of unprovoked governmental force.
The government sets us against each other in so many ways that it is all but impossible to act interdependently, compassionately, or cooperatively. The law does not allow it. Welfare is not compassion. Affirmative Action is not cooperation. And mutual dependence is not the same as interdependence.
You can't make people care for one another. It is their choice whether or not to care for one another - not their inborn responsibility. All you can do is allow them to care for one another, if they so choose.
Our government ends up imposing paralyzing restrictions, instead of providing enabling "services." Forced Affirmative Action makes healing and helping slower; forced Welfare, likewise.
Formally establishing a section of society as an underclass is not a service.
Click here to go back to Articles and Views main page