Just Laws and Bad Citizens
Personally, I think it is true that the countries and states
can create “just laws” but cannot create “just citizens”.
First, the reason why laws are not able to make citizens good
and just is that laws only work as the criterions of crime rather than the code
of justice. “Just laws” are used to regulate people`s behavior, rather than to
build justice in people. In other words, laws tell people not to do something
instead of telling people should do something. Therefore, what in the a
citizen`s mind is: what I am not supposed to do is…, rather than what I should
do is… It is clear that law is a tool to correct people`s wrongdoings. At the
same time, it does not have any help in promoting people`s justice. A citizen
never commits a crime is a citizen who obey laws. It does not mean that he is
good and just. Among thousands and millions of people who obey the laws, how
many of them are good and just? Some of them are even still doing the unethical
things which are not judged by the laws, like downloading and sharing music on Internet.
Second, I believe that people are born in bad nature. Suppose
the “just laws” could make citizens “good and just”, so why the “just laws” had
been used all the time? The “just laws” should be no longer useful since the
citizens were all good and just. I think the reason is that people are born bad
and selfish, so the government uses laws to punish people and correct people`s
behavior. Human are profit motivated animal, so
what they do is to seek the profit maximized. People obey the laws because if they do not do so, they will be punished.
Everybody knows the traffic rule that passengers should stop when crossing the
road if the traffic light is red. However, in Manhattan, thousands of people
ignore the traffic light when there is no car on the street. What they behave
does not match what good and just citizens should behave. Why do so many people
ignore the most basic traffic rule? Not only because waiting for the traffic
light goes against their profit but also because there is no need to be afraid
of being charged by the policeman.
In
conclusion, the “just laws” force citizens to behave well but never contribute
to make citizens “good and just”, because the laws is designed to prevent crime
and the citizens are not good in nature.
I like your sentence which says at the same time, it does not have any help in promoting people`s justice. I think this idea is very provocative and new. Little one suggestion: you should first define what is good and justice, and then to say the following. Basically, it is very thought-provoking.
回复删除呵呵
删除“Just laws” are used to regulate people`s behavior, rather than to build justice in people.
回复删除totally agree!
Second, I believe that people are born in bad nature.
Can't agree! I believe people are born good. People are selfish, but personally "selfish" itself is a comparative word, which means you can compare two people and then conclude whether they are selfish of selfless; but if you don't compare, you can't have the idea of "selfish". I think because people have to connect with each other, during the process of communication, people balance their benefits and losses, and philosophically during this process of balancing, we have the two words "selfish" and "selfless".
(Well that's just my personal opinion :))
呵呵
删除"Human are profit motivated animal, so what they do is to seek the profit maximized"...
回复删除... the interesting thing about this, is that many people believes it as a fact of science. However, 100 years ago, the common knowledge said people were spiritual animals, born and motivated by the pursuit of God's grace. Maybe in 100 years more, we'll be another thing. But the constant here, as you wrote it Puyan, is that we are animals. Regardless of our intellectual sophistication, we need "laws" to regulate our interactions.
Puyuan, you raise some very interesting points. One is that just laws, by their very nature, are meant to dictate what citizens should not do, rather than elicit a desired and just behavior. Because laws prohibit illegal acts, such as theft, murder, invasion of privacy, etc., they do not compel citizens to act in a certain way -- they only compel citizens not to act in a certain way. However, I think that the interesting thing is that even if laws were formed in such a way as to elicit desired and just behavior, they still would not be just, because it would be imposed upon people and therefore people would obey such laws out of obligation rather than a genuine desire to do so. This seems to be a fundamental problem with our lawmaking process.
回复删除Another thing that you mentioned that I felt was noteworthy was the implicit distinction you made between a law and the enforcement of that law. If a law is not enforced, it is virtually meaningless in its societal context. Just like the example you gave with people jaywalking in Manhattan, laws themselves are somewhat poor deterrents for bad or unethical behavior. It is more so the enforcement of the punishment behind that law that determines whether or not it is a good deterrent.
Excellent points!
I like the idea of “Just laws” I think is a great topic and it has a lot of arguments to be discussed. In many places laws are created depending in people and society needs. But what happened when laws are created on a dictatorial ambient. The ruler is going to develop new laws to he’s own convenience. So what happened if the new law is unjust and some one breaks it? Do the citizen is going to be bad citizen for breaking the unjust law? Or he is going to be seen as social fighter? It is interesting to create new scenarios where law and justice can be against each other.
回复删除Good blog
Regards