REGRESSION TO ANARCHY

A common belief is that “regulations” interfere with one life style. There is a feeling that regulations are always negative and we tend to think of regulations as preventing a person from doing something or forcing them to do what they do not want to do. Regulations are for someone else. There is a simple message in all of this, which is that you are in disharmony with everyone else it is time to rethink your life style—your ego—if that statement infuriates you, you are exactly the persons who should rethink their life style. The second message is that it is not always good to be “in sync”; however, it is also important to realize that regulations are there to protect others from your indiscretions and transgressions. What is often overlooked is that it is a two way street. I have noticed that the ones who complain about regulation the most often and most vehemently are the first ones to say that there “ought to be law” against whatever it was that someone did that just offended them in some way.

The question can be what are the regulations we talking about. Of course, we can jump to the obvious, things that land you in prison, or we can look at minor offenses such as use of offensive language or violation of table etiquette. Traffic laws are a classic example of regulations we live with everyday. A friend made an interesting statement. He was a long-haul trucker, who had been driving the same route or years. In the middle of the South Dakota prairies, there was a stop sign at the “T” junction of two highways.  As he approached the junction, he looked both ways, then in the rear view mirror and saw no cars: not one. He could see the highways until they were lost over the horizons. Being a philosopher, as many truck drivers are, he decided that the stop sign was there for his protection and that he was perfectly capable of making his own decisions in that regard and did not need stop sign, so he did not stop.  Unfortunately, a police car was behind him in a position that he could not see in his rear view mirror. He explained to me like a parent explains to a child, “Law should be just reminders and people should be able to judge which laws they need to follow and why.”

I lived for years in a country where the government wrote laws essentially the same way they are in England or the United States. The difference was they did not have the economic resources to enforce them once they became an independent country; chase cars, breathalyzers, emergency response vehicles, etc. The curious thing is that most of them bragged that they liked living there because there were no regulations, which was not true; they were just not enforced. Most of them routinely violated the laws in one way or another just as if the laws did not exist. This environment attracted expatriates who felt above the law, which is what cause me to think about all of this in the first place. They see it as a modal for the way they think people should live in the United States.

Most often, the people seemed to think that did not suffer penalties other than what they did to themselves—this is the Marlborough cowboy attitude. What this means is they suffered after the fact; therefore, it was their own business. The tragedy is that when a drunk ran head on into another vehicle and kill or injured people, the drunk was not the only ones to suffer. However, this is narrow-minded and is minor when compared to the fact that they influence society in another way; the children were observing this behavior and losing their sense of social discipline. They were not mature enough or experienced enough to make rational decision about what laws they need to follow and why. Now the children have grown up; thus, regression to bestiality is gaining ground. Anarchy is bestial and not pretty; it has no place in organized human society.

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