There's the Law, and Then There's The Law

by tzo
Strike The Root
Nov. 17, 2011

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it. ~ Frédéric Bastiat

These are the words with which Bastiat began his famous treatise "The Law" in 1850, and it remains imperative today to focus attention on the serious fact that the law has been perverted and inverted and achieves the opposite of what it professes to accomplish.

But if this has truly been an ongoing and serious problem for such a long time, why is it not generally recognized? Wouldn’t most people today judge that Bastiat was overstating his case? The law may not be perfect, but to call it evil is surely a gross exaggeration, isn’t it?

Well, we have to begin by looking at that little three-letter word, "law," and consider just what it means to the average person who hears it. Most people think of themselves as good, law-abiding people, and it is no small factor that "good" and "law-abiding" go together like chocolate and peanut butter here. This can be a very useful pairing for those who create the law, and a very difficult pairing to separate in the minds of those who have been taught about the law by those who create the law.

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