ok, we have had laws/rules for as long as their has been a human
civilization… I’m sure that the hunter-gather of a million years ago,
had rules of some sort…we have had laws/ rules as long as there
have been human beings and yet, think about it…
in those million years, has laws/rules prevented laws from
being broken… in other words, we have a million years of
evidence that laws/rules don’t work… we still have crime
and violence and people going through red lights…
laws haven’t changed a thing…
so, what is the problem?
why can’t we obey the laws/rules?
now at this point, a whole myriad of answers can appear…
people are stupid, people are lazy, people are fundamentally
evil, people are always searching for an easy fix, people are always
seeking some sort of advantage, people are selfish, people are greedy,
and yet earlier we decided that a one size fits all answers aren’t valid,
so we cannot answer that question of why we can’t obey laws with
a one size fits all answer……
so why do people break the laws/rules?
the problem is with the word people, because it is some people
that break the laws, not all people, but some people…
and why is that? why do some people feel themselves above/outside
the laws/rules?
they can feel superior perhaps, or perhaps they are disconnected/alienated
from the society/state/culture…
if we don’t feel like we are a part of a system or society, we might feel
more like we can break its rules/laws because hay, we aren’t part of
that system/society anyway…
how do we get people to invest in their state/society/ culture enough to
get them to obey, follow the laws or rules?
I would submit that people break the laws/rules because they aren’t
invested into society/state enough to care about what happens to
that society/state……
if the society deems it that every person for themselves, as the
capitalistic society deems it, then what is the value for a person
to obey or follow the laws/rules?
every person for themselves… following the rules/laws isn’t
acceptable because by following the laws/rules, you might, might
fall behind others… the competition is to put yourself on top or
above others… then why follow the rules if there is nothing to gain
in the rules of capitalism, which is about every person for themselves…
if the game is to enrich yourself at the expense of others, then
there is nothing to be gained by following/obeying the laws/rules…
but what if, what if the game is something else… not personal advantage
but collective advantage…it is not whither the individual succeeds but
if the society/collective succeeds that matters…
if we make the game to be, if the society/state succeeds, then
we all succeed… then obeying the laws/rules makes much more
sense…
it is the individual pursuit of our goals that allows
one to decide to not obey the laws/rules, to help one
gain an advantage…
in other words, it is the rules that determine how we play the game…
if the rules/laws are different, then we play the game differently…
for example, in baseball, we have very set, determined rules…
threes strikes and you are out…
if we changed the rules, then we change the nature of the game…
if we give batters a forth strike, then we fundamentally change
the game of baseball…….
so let think about how we if we change the laws/rules, we fundamentally
change the game…….
so for example, we no longer require people to stop at red lights…
we change the game and people will react differently…
but that fundamental change will also create chaos and disorder
in the streets… people will demand, demand that we put in laws that
force people to stop at red lights… but and this is important…
some people will resist that… some people will call it socialism
and communism to make people stop at red lights…
those people will declare it their “right” to drive their cars through
a red light…but these people only have their rights in mind…
they don’t get the fact that they exists within the collective…
we cannot exists outside of a system… we are social creatures
that must have a social structure about us for us to survive…
there is in fact something wrong with people who don’t get that
they can only survive within a social system, a state, a society,
a culture…
they don’t get the collective nature of human existence…
we cannot survive alone and thus we must have
a collective existence… it isn’t about you or me, but about us…
and the rules/laws must reflect the collective nature of human
existence…
the game of life/existence depends, demands that that we
have rules/laws that put the collective first…not the individual…
however, does that mean we trample upon the rights of the minority?
no, and that is the beauty of the American system, where we have
institutionalize the idea of individual protest and disagreement with
the system/state……. we guarantee minorities the right to disagree with
the laws/rules of the state/government/society……
but that disagreement ends with the engagement of violence
and physical actions of any disagreement…you can protest all
you want until, until your actions violate my rights… you can act until
your actions hurt or damage my right to peacefully exist…
so given this, does current actions of pulling down right wing
or confederate statues “violate” my right to peacefully exist?
you haven’t enter my personal space, you haven’t violated my
personal possessions or harmed my person… so, no,
the current action of pulling down statues should be allowed…
does it disrupt the current system? yes, but that is the point of
these demonstrations… to bring about change in systemic racism
in the U.S…
it is the collective actions of a collective people to bring about
collective changes in the laws/rules……
if we make racism illegal, then we must change our actions to
accommodate the new rules/laws…
changes in the rules/laws changes the way we play the game…
those protesting are protesting as a collective hoping for a collective
change in the rules/laws……
it doesn’t benefit any single one person to create changes in the laws/rules…
it benefits everyone to have a change in the rules/laws that prevent
systemic racism in America…
for injustice that impacts one group exclusively, is impacting all groups
collectively… for the very point of justice is to treat everyone equally…
regardless of race, creed, sex or sexual orientation, color of one’s skin,
wealth, title, or amount of power one might have…
and once again, we see the collative nature of existence…
in other words, the laws/rules must impact everyone equally or if it impacts
one group with greater impact then other groups, then it is unjust…
unequal… and not in the best interest of the collective…
so we engage in laws/rules that impact everyone equally
and we understand human existence as being a collective
engagement…this means the rules/laws must
engage collectively……
we must play the game with equal rights and equal opportunities…
the rules/laws must be equal and fair to everyone…
do we have this in America today?
Kropotkin