Society, laws, The US Constitution, lawbreaking, fairness.

One huge thing I've found about living in a society is that society's laws and support systems don't necessarily help those whose experiences lead them to exceptionally difficult circumstances. I can't help thinking that many people end up facing the dilemma of eother having to break the law or suffer even further by not breaking the law. After all, if a safety net's not in place for you, what other option do you have other than do what you can to survive?

This, perhaps, is where Shakespeare speaks of "the insolence of office" and "the law's delay". Just as the homeless man Jeff in my "Homeless in Texas" blog suffers because of the delay that red tape and beauracracy causes, many people's problems become amplified for little reason at all. So, some of them end up having to take the law into their own hands, as they see no alternative. Yet most people expect the laws to be obeyed by all, to the letter. So, resentments build up between various parties as each sees the other as at fault: one as the legal transgressor, the other as the moral transgressor.

Yet I must say that I do find that the law, it so often seems, is a quite inflexible construct that actually becomes harmful to society.

I mean, how would the world be if we all obeyed the law, to the letter? Would it function? Of course it wouldn't. There are always exceptional circumstances where we need to break the law in order to make something important happen. A simple example is that we might break speed limits in order to get someone to hospital. But what are more complex examples?

These are the kinds of questions we have to ask when we get into the "grey areas" of living in a society. It's in the grey areas that we find we have to take responsibility for our own actions, and sometimes for the greater good of all of us.

After all, the old cliche of the nazi uttering the desperate plea "I was only obeying orders" lends us to realising the consequences of blind adherance to the laws of state. The United States Consititution was founded on the freedom of the individual, and his or her right to free speech, and to question the role and function, and power of the country's leaders, amongst other things.

But the United States came into existence out of a struggle against an unfair, unjust system. It stands for rebellion, and lawbreaking, in fact.

What I find baffling, sometimes, is that many Americans don't appreciate this irony.