Laws are a fascinating facet of the human excellence. While the coach who taught American Government in high school might have told you the laws are a mark of a civilized society, the truth of the matter is that they are completely the opposite.
The real meaning behind laws as we know them is that humans as a rule are so savage that we need massive dusty tomes full of intelligible legal jargon only interpretable by judges and lawyers to tell us what ways are too far removed from the norm to be legal behavior. These laws.
Laws are not a mark of advanced culture. If we were an advanced culture we would not need to have the threat of prison and death to keep us in line. There should be a basic knowledge that it is wrong to kill other humans or dump poison into public drinking water. A sheep knows not to go in its own trough.
If we could be trusted to do what was truly just be anarchy would it not only the most practical form of government, but the only one that could be justified. Anarchy is not the same a chaos and Darwin’s battle, it is instead trusting humans to behave at least slightly better than most other animals.
The problem with anarchy is that we still need rules to keep us in line. The truth is that many people are vicious and savage creatures that will do pretty much what they can get away with. Not breaking laws does not make a person good, it makes them obedient.
Laws serve a purpose, and I doubt that our society would survive with out them at this point. These rigid structures have become a drug to us and the withdrawal could be fatal. We have been under the control of these books for so long that we have come to see them as the definitive line between right and wrong.
Other than their oppressive nature, the other problem with laws is that they only work so long as the benefit to risk ratio is in favor of following them. Once an individual decides that is not the case, laws are worthless. If laws worked there would be no need for punishments. Unfortunately laws are not followed and prisons are built to cage humans for a few years so they can become more savage and less human.
If laws were followed then there is one law that could be made to eliminate all others: Live as you can while causing the least harm to all that lives.
