For me, the meaning was that when society goes downhill, more laws are passed to try to correct things. Many laws would be unnecessary if people were simply courteous and responsible. That there are so many laws is an indication that people won't do the things society thinks are "right" without being forced to.
As to "whose" right and wrong, the values of our legal system are basically Judeo-Christian values. I have written on this topic, but for the most part our legal system enshrines Judeo-Christian values. For one example: our entire concept of property laws over land and animals. The idea that you can own thousands of acres of land and prohibit starving people from growing food on it is completely alien to most Native American and many Eastern religions or ethics. The idea that you can own animals and use them for your personal benefit is a "dominion over the earth" concept which is flatly contrary to many other value systems. I can't think offhand of a single law which embraces a value flatly contradictary to the Judeo-Christian value system.
Certainly some laws have made the world safer for children, workers, and others, and have reduced personal misery for some or many. Some day, but I don't have time today, we can discuss the issue of the price and who pays it. (Not just financial price, but price other ways. I think there is a connection between much of this huge increase in our legal system and the fact that most families today can't "make it" on a single salary, and also that most workers today have less time off and fewer holidays than serfs did in the Middle Ages.)
In the meanwhile, perhaps you can explain to me why it is a good thing for society that a person in our state can be arrested for trying to earn money braiding hair because she didn't go through a multi-year cosmetology course she can't afford. Or, to come to it, why if Lincoln were alive today, he wouldn't be allowed just to read law and hang out his shingle, but would have to graduate from an approved law school at enormous cost and three years of his life, and when he comes out probably know nothing about the practice of law. |
