As a law abiding citizen I try to follow the rules, even if I don’t agree with them, or if they don’t make sense. However there are occasions when you should not follow the rules and the video should explain why.
This is a rant, I named my school the Shepherd School for a purpose, and that is because I believe, those of us that have families have the absolute obligation to protect our families. Some of us take that to the next logical step and use our skill to protect others. I am seeing a trend where instead of relying on our own common sense to protect us, we are relying on blind obedience to rules. We have stopped analyzing the motives behind the rules and that is causing problems.
Now, I have no problem with rules, I am definitely no anarchist – Without rules and the consequences of breaking rules we would be in a dog eat dog – might makes right world. And there is always someone stronger. Who would protect my home while I was at work? It would be the definition of a Without Rule of Law (WROL) Situation talked about so frequently on youtube. It seems to me that those advocating total anarchy are either naive, or planning on being the baddest guy in the room.
That said, I have a definite problem with overreaching rules. I do not need someone attempting to legislate my own common sense. I understand the need to protect society from the aberrant individual, but we have allowed the lawmakers to protect us against ourselves. The underlying thought is that you are not smart enough or responsible enough to protect yourselves, so we are going to dictate your actions for you. Congress is not my father, and I am not a child.
What makes it worse is that this legislation is often permanent, but the cause of the rule is not. This creates a log jam of rules on top of rules fixing problems that no longer exist. We have hundreds of thousands of pages of laws with more being added each year. It’s gotten to the point where they say things like “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”. I do not care what yoru political affiliation is or how important you think the an issue is, you should never accept a law that even the legislature passing the law does not understand.
When you look at writing a law, you should not look at what the law is purported to fix, you should look at the potential abuses of the law if it is enforced improperly.
Unfortunately, choosing for yourself is hard, taking responsibility for yourself is hard, watching the watchers is hard, and none of this is popular. Sometimes standing out and speaking up for what is right is considered deviant, and in the world we have allowed to be created being deviant for good is more suspect than being deviant for evil.
I just want to end with a favorite quote of mine.
“I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” Robert A Heinlein
Rant Mode Off…
