Something to think about:
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.
-- Lin Yutang --
What do you think? Is he overstating his case?
Do you think that perhaps Lin Yutang just doesn't understand the situation today--that we must now give up some freedoms to be safe and secure?
To frame the problem differently, perhaps a society without lawyers (interpreters of laws), policemen (enforcers of laws), and soldiers (protectors of interpreters, enforcers, and others) is not a society but a chaotic and vulnerable assortment of individuals. The question then becomes, who makes the laws? The answer becomes the problem.
ReplyDeleteFred,
ReplyDeleteI think the "too many" part of his statement is true. But is it always easy to know exactly when you've crossed over into "too many"?
R/T,
ReplyDeleteYou are postulating the extreme position at the other end of the spectrum, both of which I think are disastrous to any civil and humane society.
The answer, as usual, is somewhere in the middle--between right-wing rigidity and left-wing fluidity.
We need some laws, but more than the liberals want and fewer than the conservatives want.
Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not always easy to know when we've crossed the line, especially when it happens as it has been taking place over the past few decades, beginning with the War on Drugs and the War on Terror and now in Arizona, the War on immigrants.
Each one of these so-called "Wars" has eroded parts of the Bill of Rights. And what's scary is that the courts are upholding this slow disintegration.
soap box mode (off)