01-30-2009, 01:08 PM
Quote:I don't see the SWAT teams hauling the librarians off either, but I do see most people who are "freaking out" as people who want to be 100% law abiding citizens. Otherwise, we have finally attained what I've said before, an anarchy of law where every citizen is guilty of something, and enforcement becomes an arbitrary mechanism of the state to repress the unpopular, to punish the enemies of the state or make political theater to win elections. The other demoralizing aspect to this situation is that "average citizens are expected" to be in knowing violation of the law.
This is a danger. I suspect the law will be modified, repealed, clarified, or struck down before this becomes a large problem, but you're right, it's not a good situation where enforcement gives the appearance of being arbitrary. France, for instance, suffers mightily from this. However, where you lost me is here...
Quote:This leads to moral ambiguity where behavior is condoned as long as you are not caught, and then eventual moral decline. And, in other words, a police state. So, along with the other "socialist" leanings, we are moving away from liberty and closer to despotism.
It's just not that dire. Rudy Giuliani was not right; one day's turnstile jumping is not the next day's murder spree. The law and morality are not so closely bound that people need to obey the one in a perfect straight line to not all into "moral decline". And, of course, the idea that socialism is inherently "despotic" might have seemed sensible in the 1940s, but we now have more than half a century of experience with social democracies, many of which are ranked as the most free countries in the world.
-Jester