Too Many Laws In America
Philip Howard gives a nice speech about how America has become a nation of too many laws. Those laws lead to paralisis because people are afraid of getting slapped with a lawsuit. Teachers are afraid to discipline kids because of it. Businesses are afraid to launch new products because of it. People are afraid to speak their minds because of it. What has happened to people’s common sense?
I have been preaching about this for many years. I am very passionate about this issue.
The one thing that Philip neglects to mention is the word morals. He does talk about values and how citizens have tried to create legislation to replace them. It seemed rather apparent to me that he avoided the use of the word because of its connection to religion. I suppose he didn’t want this to become a philosophical religious argument. That was probably smart on his part. Yet, it illustrates his point even more. Just as people are afraid of lawsuits, they are also afraid of getting labeled as a religious nutcase. This is probably what would have happened had he used the word morals instead of values.
I thought he should have focussed the speech far more on morals and values. They are at the very root of the issue. You cannot legislate morals into people. It is not possible. You cannot make one man like another man by passing a law that says it is illegal for them to hate each other. They will always break that law. You must promote values. You must show people why it is important for them to practice common sense. You must show them the advantages of living a moral life.
This is the very fundamental underlying flaw in our country. People are abandoning their values and trying to replace them with laws. It does not, cannot and will not ever work period. People have to make the choice to be moral. They need moral parents to guide them. It helps even more if they have some kind of spiritual connection to guide them also. But, even that is not enough. They need moral support from the people around them.
Immorality is like a metastatic cancer in society. It spreads throughout the entire body if you don’t take care of it early enough. I fear this is the path our country is headed down. Morals have gone up in smoke. Half of inner city school kids can’t even graduate highschool. That is a damn shame considering how much easier school is now compared to the old days. Do these kids have any goals in life at all? Has anyone given them a reason not to resort to crime other than the threat of going to jail? It is quite obvious that the threat of going to jail is not enough. In fact, I am told that some of these kids consider it a step into manhood. They wear that label proudly. What in sam hell has led up to this? The answer is obvious. This is all caused by people putting too much trust in laws and therefore abandoning morality.
Unitl we find a way to correct this fundamental lack of morality in this country, the law books are going to get thicker. Innovation is going to be stifled. Sometimes I wonder if the Amish people are the smartest people in this country. I bet they don’t need to learn too many laws in those communities. Maybe we ought to use them as a model for how to govern.
Do you know what? I absolutely agree with you!
Out of all my teaches in high school only one had common sense: He was not afraid of copyright laws. He made a copy of the textbook for everyone in the class. Instead of getting everyone an expensive $75 dollar copy of a disc, he just bought 3 cent discs and copied it onto them.
Too many laws protect stupid people…
Ashley,
I think you misunderstood the whole point. It should be common sense not to steal other people’s work.
If people willingly chose to do the right thing instead of being selfish with total disregard for others, then we wouldn’t need laws to prevent them from doing it.