| Because it's the Law! is heard so often. And, yeah, so what? The law is not some mystical thing that no one can grasp unless you are a lawyer. It might be a convoluted and absurd creation by a few people to keep other people from doing what they want, but the law is not something that is beyond the grasp of anyone. It is against common reason, what with the ever increasing amount of laws, but the law is actually more in people's favor today then at any time in the course of human history. Back then -- whenever that was -- law was more at the point of a gun, or spear, or fist. "Law" was the unadulterated power of one group of people over another group of people. When the law was brought into question about the only place were anyone could go to question it was to the very people who created it in the first place. But there are actually two parts to law. There are the laws of limitation and there are the laws of cooperation. Laws of the first sort are all those laws that have been passed throughout history that gave the state some level of control over the people. The number and power of these laws has been diminishing for centuries. What was the absolute power and law of a king is now the mere constitutional monarchy. What was the law and power of Communist states is now parliamentary democracies. These lwas were perjorative. The laws of limitations -- that prevented woman from voting, or owning property -- or that prevented the use of this language, or the publishing of that book -- all across the world has been under attack -- and they have been beaten back down in ways that just 50 years ago would have been inconceivable. This trend will continue. The laws of cooperation are the laws which people use to resolve disputes and issues between them. They are neutral in their application. They are contract laws, and marriage laws, and zoning laws -- they are the laws of reasonable, practical people who are trying to figure out how to best balance all the different rights and needs of individuals. These laws are proliferating without end. As more countries are freer, and as Western countries too, move to limit the power of the state, so these laws of cooperation are growing in number. One of the problems with laws of cooperation is that they are forever subject to hairsplitting. And thus there is a growing need for lawyers. Laws of limitation need only a police force to enforce. Laws of cooperation need adjudicators to refine, define, interpet and parse. There is no healthier sign of freedom than more lawyers to deal with more laws of cooperation |
Culture is yet another of those concepts that
seem just so easy to comprehend. But what does
culture entail? Surely music, art, theater, dance --
the performing cultures are nearly always benign.
There is nothing inherently good or bad in these.
They are the mere expressions of all mankind of
trying to fill non-work hours.
But what about aspects of culture like throwing
virgins into volcanoes? Or not allowing woman to
drive? Or the honor killings that are in some
cultures, where if you "dishonor" one person their
family gets to kill someone in your family. Is this
good? Are these cultural aspects good?
And certainly within any large culture, say French or
Chinese or American culture, there are subcultures.
There are the religious aspects of culture, there
are drug cultures. There are people who engage in
suburban culture as compared to those who are of
a rural culture. There is a culture that of those who
live near the sea that is different from the culture of
those who live in the mountains.
All these different aspects of culture must be
seperated out to talk about them coherently. Some
parts of a culture might be good, and salvageable.
Other parts are nothing short of abominable and
should be done away with as quickly as possible.
And still other parts are somewhat distasteful to
non-adherents to a culture, but they're willing to live
with them as something quaint. The Amish culture is
surely the best example of this.
seem just so easy to comprehend. But what does
culture entail? Surely music, art, theater, dance --
the performing cultures are nearly always benign.
There is nothing inherently good or bad in these.
They are the mere expressions of all mankind of
trying to fill non-work hours.
But what about aspects of culture like throwing
virgins into volcanoes? Or not allowing woman to
drive? Or the honor killings that are in some
cultures, where if you "dishonor" one person their
family gets to kill someone in your family. Is this
good? Are these cultural aspects good?
And certainly within any large culture, say French or
Chinese or American culture, there are subcultures.
There are the religious aspects of culture, there
are drug cultures. There are people who engage in
suburban culture as compared to those who are of
a rural culture. There is a culture that of those who
live near the sea that is different from the culture of
those who live in the mountains.
All these different aspects of culture must be
seperated out to talk about them coherently. Some
parts of a culture might be good, and salvageable.
Other parts are nothing short of abominable and
should be done away with as quickly as possible.
And still other parts are somewhat distasteful to
non-adherents to a culture, but they're willing to live
with them as something quaint. The Amish culture is
surely the best example of this.
| Practicalist |
Jim Hlavac |
| Someone had to make a simplified explanation of the way the world works. |