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No, the point I'm trying to make is that seemingly one of the only ways to get stupid laws changed is for them to be broken, and for people to see that the law
by easong 11y ago
No, the point I'm trying to make is that seemingly one of the only ways to get stupid laws changed is for them to be broken, and for people to see that the law is pointless (or not pointless!). Why exactly the law is or was in place doesn't matter too much.
Another example would be the woman who has the gall to braid hair without a license - if she hadn't broken the law, nobody would talk about it, there would never be any chance for reform, and we would all be incrementally poorer for it.
I'm not taking a position on specific laws, just that it's important that some laws occasionally be broken so that as a society we can test whether or not it matters if someone breaks them. If breaking a law doesn't result in negative outcomes, it shouldn't be a law.
- ubernostrum 11y agoNo, the point I'm trying to make is that seemingly one of the only ways to get stupid laws changed is for them to be broken The counterpoint is that civil disobedience requires harsh punishment of the disobedience in order to be effective. If somebody flagrantly violates a law because they claim it's bad, and walks away with little to no punishment for doing so, the public's impression will be "well, must not be such a bad law if that's all that happens", which will not serve to change things.
- easong 11y agoIf the law is never enforced, that's almost as good as it being repealed. Given the lack of any other effective mechanism for obsoleting laws, I would book 'this joins the thousands of other bad laws that are never enforced' as a win for anyone who thinks we could do without it.