John, I don't know about your constitution in USA. But here, we don't even have one. We have "convention", which works remarkably well. We all agree to be basically friends, then argue away, trying to be the government for the good of all, each claims.
And it is pure democracy. "Most votes" wins and they can take the other people's money and dispose of their lives as they see fit. The only thing stopping them is the prospect of another election in 3 years and if they offend too many people, they'll be looking for another job.
NZ is far from anarchy. Without wishing to get a list of bible quotes, it seems to me it would be nice to not have to have shelves full of rules. I know very well that this is Christian teaching, but I'd rather we simply respect other people and their property and not bother with billions of rules. Doesn't work yet, unfortunately.
The reason I don't steal things has nothing to do with the laws. It is because I know that our life would reduce to a tribal wardance if we tried to have theft as part of our thinking, so I play my part in keeping the cultural norm of "no steal" in place. I should add that I don't think that is some kind of absolute imperative - I cheerfully catch a fish and eat it, thereby disposing of it's person and property completely. If you work your way along the DNA chain, there is no real dividing line between the fish and a person. So why not eat a person? A chimpanzee? A monkey? No real reason. Just that it can't work for me, my cultural background precludes it and I have no idea how to cook them.
Maoris used to eat opponents after war. So it isn't simply insane individuals who do that. Heaps of people still eat monkeys - I think.
Bye, Maurice |
