Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the more laws, the greater the imbalance of power between the people and the elites. Even as fewer laws lower that imbalance. Once the imbalance crosses an invisible line, we call it “despotism” or “Tyranny.” The core truth is, they are both simply extreme imbalances of power. Therefore law is the path to despotism. This was one of the core arguments in Plato’s Republic, that “justice” (law) isn’t necessarily just. There never has been a totalitarian state that wasn’t filled with laws. Despotism is known for its absurd laws as tyrants are legendary abusers of people. All done under color of law. Edicts imposed, not for the despot’s good… but for ours. Laws pile up until they smother us… like old laundry.
The argument made is that freedom is dangerous. The less freedom the more safety. If we would only give up our human rights and humanity… we could live in a utopia of our master’s creation. Because, let’s face it, you and I are not to be trusted with freedom… but unaccountable people should have absolute freedom and control. This is an absurd argument on the face of it… that people without power can’t be trusted with freedom. But people can be trusted with unlimited power and freedom to abuse without accountability. The two positions are mutually exclusive. If freedom (power over oneself) is dangerous for a politically powerless person… how much more so for one with unlimited political power? This shows us that the argument for ever greater laws is spurious.
Socialists make the argument freedom is dangerous, so we need to give it up to an all wise and all powerful elite, to deal with us and our foolishness. They never recognize the spurious argument that it is. Because they are captured by the idea of cradle to grave childhood, paid for by someone else… a big brother maybe? Such people don’t understand that a child has no agency. Those Peter Pans who would live in a society where everyone is kept infantile and hemmed in by law, are jailing themselves too. Like a child, they think they should have unlimited freedom, but also like a child, they have no idea what it means. Because they are children. Only a child believes they need a parent to support, house, clothe and feed them. An adult does this for him or herself.
This brings us to a core point, that those who believe in unlimited law are children who want to be coddled by an all consuming mother. That’s what law is, a mother’s apron strings tying her little child to her forever. Who needs freedom when a smothering mother will take care of you. In fact she WANTS to. Yes, you may get the belt now and then, but that’s the price of permanent childhood. Children focus on the now. An example of this short term focus is the low family formation rate and sub-replacement birth rate in the Western world. Peter Pan doesn’t have kids. He throws tantrums. Like when ANTIFA has “fiery but peaceful” riots demanding more laws to be imposed upon us all. Because, who would know better how much they need to be smothered?
There has to be limits on human action, like murder, stealing, violence, and fraud. Law is the mechanism our ancestors found to do it. Unlimited law though is a means for the elite to kill, steal, commit violence, and defraud us, as Thrasymachus said. Law is a means to an end. That end can be a free, fair, and prosperous society, where people are treated as adults and act as such… or a society of children, hemmed in by laws that protect and enrich the elite at the expense of the people. The elite’s demand for more laws will never stop. It’s human nature. Our willingness to go along with our own oppression, however, is not human nature. Instead, wise people demand few laws, well policed, and equally enforced… instead of an imbalance of power created from reams of arcane and subjective laws.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
