The Law

by Angie Riedel

We Americans are obsessed with rule-following and the law to the point of ignorance. We think of rules and laws as something from on high that must not be broken. We don’t believe we are free to ignore the law, even if it kills us to obey it. We quite literally accept the notion that the law is what is supreme and the law is what is noble and that it is the law that must be defended at all costs. We give our lives to protect the law.

The fact is, that makes no sense. At all. Where do I begin?

The law can’t be supreme, only our lives can hold supreme meaning. Laws cannot be noble, only people can be noble. The law doesn’t need to be defended, because it can’t be harmed; in fact, it doesn’t even exist except inside people’s heads. People need to be defended, because we can be harmed, we can cease to exist. And because we are irreplaceable and life is sacred, we need to take steps to defend and protect life. Therefore, giving our lives to defend something that can’t be harmed makes no sense. What is the law for if it is not to protect and defend our lives?

Here are a couple of obvious basics about laws, which will probably not come as any surprise. In the first place, the law and the rules are nothing more than words. They are words written on paper or posted on signs. The words do not come from on high, or from beyond, nor are they eternal and immutable. They are not by any means guaranteed to be fair, or right, or moral, or correct, and there is no legal obligation for them to be any of those things.

Laws are in fact wholly arbitrary and they are written to protect the interests of those who write them. That’s why law in its current form exists. That’s why it is so heavily propagandized and lauded in countless TV shows where we get all teary eyed over ideas like justice and righteousness, and we assign only the highest ideals to those who make our laws and those who are heavily armed and will shoot us in the back to uphold them.

Yes, we are trained and taught over and again to obey the laws. We are threatened with frightening stories about what happens when you break the law. We are constantly shown examples of those who break the law. They are held up to us by the scruff of the neck, eyes blackened by police brutality and torture, all legal, of course, and we are told hair-raising stories of their dastardly deeds and the wrongs they’ve done to the innocent. The message is clear. Only bad people break the law. And when the law is broken, terrible things are the consequence. Without the law to steady the keel of social order our whole system would break down and devolve into chaos and disorder, violence and cruelty, and it would all go to shit overnight. It would end everything.

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