Law and Order
Well, Here I am, back to show you another View. The current National, political debate, which should be of concern to each of us, concerns “Law and Order”. The question on the table is in effect, should we allow any foreign or domestic free enterprise interest to get control of our Prison system and at the same time organize our Police forces? To me, here at the grass roots of our civilization, this sort of thing is quite contrary to common sense, not to say our Christian Principles, which we believe, in theory, form the basis of our society.
To me, as well as many other concerned folks, this sort of thing would possibly present a wide open door to the forming of a Police State, with all of its subversive practices. Prisons should be reformed to become Correctional, Healing Institutions, rather than places for punishment, which they now are. The prevailing social thought, today, seems to be to punish anyone who is caught misinterpreting or misunderstanding some law of the land, whether just and reasonable or not. A person’s guilt or innocence is usually decided by learned arguments between two “qualified people” qualification in special schools of learning. These academies teach one how to read and interpret the complexity of the laws formulated by the political party who happened to be in power to run the country. These laws are sometimes biased against certain groups of people, who might be assumed to be in interference with the vested interests and the ideology of that party in power.
My view from here on my Back Forty shows me the necessity for law and order. The question, in my mind, is whose law or laws are we supposed to follow in order to maintain order? Did the folks like you and me have a say in the formation of these laws or rules that have been designed to run our country?
Laws are rules formulated to govern the Game of Life at which we are all engaged. This game requires the wholehearted cooperation of all of the players, each player playing his or her own particular roll. When we fail to do our part, then we should be kindly told about it and given a chance to find out what we did that was not in the script.
I am reminded of the words of Kahlil Gibran in his book “The Prophet”. In meaning he seems to say the criminal is not alone to blame for his apparent crime. His public, his environment must also share the blame. For example, we allow the manufacture of intoxicating beverages and prosecute the individual who drinks too much, becomes intoxicated and commits a crime against the law and or against another person. We allow our fertile soil to be used for the growing of tobacco. We allow Businesses to process this weed plant for consumption by people of any age to destroy their health and usefulness to family and society.
Here is another “View” to consider. The philosophy of our system seems to be based on superlatives, fastest, best, greatest and most. This creates the need in our psyche to get there first, to beat that other guy, to try to get the most in order to insure that we will have enough. Are we still living in the Jungle Age of Competition, even when our Sciences and our Technologies, working together are showing us that we no longer need to live this way? Indeed, I suggest that the answer to this question is that with the combination of these sciences and the associated technologies, we do not and perhaps should not need to compete for the necessities for a complete, secure and fulfilled life.
It is the opinion of my Grass Root friends that Industry of any kind, whether designed to produce Goods for people to use and consume, or to produce Services like Health, Education, Transportation, Communication, etc. can very well carry on producing and distributing without the supposed need for what we call Business as well as the Monetary system of Exchange.
This is my view from here.
I will be pleased to have your friendly reaction and comments.
Timothy Haystubble (Grass Roots Philosopher)