We live in a society where rule of law is dearly held by many citizens. Question: how long will the status quo hold? In a time and place when overgovernance is the norm, rule of law is corrupted and weakened by a simple fact – there are too many laws for the law to be applied equally to everyone. When you make hundreds of thousands of laws you cannot hope to apply them equally to everyone. You cannot even pay honest lip service to the concept.
Our legal system has three basic tiers: federal, state and local. It is generally held that federal law trumps state law which trumps local law. For this reason, there should be very few federal laws, a few state laws and as many local laws as communities deem necessary. When you have too many laws at every level, you begin to read stories like this one, in which local authorities decide that their laws are more important than the laws made by those representing larger bodies of citizens. Pennsylvanians can do whatever they damn well please, as far as I am concerned. Practically speaking though, local Pennsylvania authorities are cheapening rule of law by deciding to ignore state laws. In the long term, they hurt everyone by doing so.
A society without rule of law is a society that is always moments away from a descent into chaos and mayhem. It worries me greatly that several conditions exist in this nation today which, alone or together, could act as catalysts for a descent into darkness.
- Too many laws – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or follow the federal, state and local laws because there are hundreds of thousands of them, particularly when you include “guidelines” which can be punished by force if not followed. This weakens the rule of law by encouraging citizens to throw up their hands and stop even trying to interpret, understand or comply with basic common sense rules.
- Too many bureaucrats – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or respect thousands of faceless strangers who make decisions from thousands of miles away about how that average citizen should conduct his or her daily affairs. This weakens the rule of law by encouraging citizens to ignore missives from these strangers and to be dishonest with these strangers when confronted by them from time to time.
- Too many taxes – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or comply with current federal, state and local tax code. Were it not for the organized system of theft known as withholding, the average citizen would realize that the levels of “voluntary” robbery have reached well beyond ridiculous. This weakens rule of law because most productive citizens do not appreciate having the fruits of their labor stolen and redistributed.
- Too many ignorant citizens – the bureaucrat class has purposely fostered an environment of mediocrity in education and a culture that values instant gratification above fiscal responsibility. It has encouraged systems that produces illiterate godlike football heroes and dooms to obscurity the men and women who are truly contributing something valuable to the society – scientists, economists and inventors are basically ignored while Congress debates the merits of steroid use by empty headed ball throwers.
- Too many empty promises – every election comes with new broken promises an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to believe yet somehow, they foolishly do, at least the ones who can be bothered to vote. An average citizen cannot possibly be expected to keep track of all the broken promises, but every one of them degrades the rule of law, respect for government and the general moral condition of the nation. The War on Terror is just five years old but most of us are more terrified than we were when that war began. The War on Drugs is more than four decades old but more of us use drugs than ever before. The War on Poverty is more than 40 years old as well. Lying politicians have had to redefine the term poverty to include people who consume so many calories every day that they are obese. Those living in poverty now have color televisions and washing machines and cars. But the war is still on because without it, the empty promises wouldn’t be needed.
When there are enough laws and enough bureaucrats and enough taxes and enough ignorant citizens and all the empty promises that can be have been made then the system will eat itself. Rule of law, having been bludgeoned into a coma in her sleep, will slowly bleed out while the world burns. No one will be left to notice.
Of every 100 people who read this post, 99 of you will not reach this sentence. That is because you have been trained to believe government will always take care of you. You have been conditioned to feel certain that rule of law will always protect you from the barbarians at the gate. You have been indoctrinated into a false sense of security and you will stand in your lines and submit to security searches and let people take your money and tell you what you may or may not do with your own body. You will be born and you will die without truly understanding the value of rule of law. You will exist in this life without ever really understanding that in a society that truly values freedom, the number and complexity of laws is limited so that rule of law can endure.