I was doing some research on different laws after reading about government and corporate oppression and came to a stunning conclusion: I have never participated in making a law. Every law on the face of the Earth was created without my input or consent. Whether or not I agree with the law doesn’t matter. It simply exists because someone else thought it was a good idea. But we have to follow all the laws or risk being thrown in jail. But we didn’t have a say in creating these laws, so why should we be compelled to follow them?
There used to be laws saying a black person could not marry a white person. This was in the last half-century. Was the law just? No way. But did everyone still have to follow it? You bet. Martin Luther King said something like to resist and unjust law is doing your patriotic duty, but it comes at great cost. MLK was thrown in jail many times for resisting the racist laws of his time. It took a whole Civil Rights Movement just to get blacks and whites on equal terms with each other. That is just one example of laws gone wild.
I believe we should take our own initiative when it comes to laws. If we do not agree with a certain law, then we don’t follow it. If a law is unjust, then following it is only perpetuating the wrongfulness of the law. We know the difference between right and wrong and there are hundreds, possibly thousands of laws that just don’t make sense or are there purposely to oppress those who are not rich, white, powerful, or straight. People being thrown in jail for possessing the plant marijuana. Two people unable to marry because they are of the same sex. People sit in jail accused of a crime they didn’t commit because they cannot afford the bail. Most times, they are forced to plead guilty to a lesser charge just to get out of jail. People who are in possession of hard drugs are thrown in jail for years when in reality what they need is drug rehab.
People always act as if everyone who breaks the law should be thrown in jail, no matter how silly the law is. But does jail or prison really help these minor offenders who simply had some drugs on them or were simply the wrong color and matched some general description? Jail does not rehabilitate. Minor offenders go into jail and come out worse criminals than they went in as. All kinds of abuse take place in jail. People are psychologically and physically scarred there. It is not a place that facilitates growth and renewal towards a better future. Look at how many people spend recurrent terms in jail/prison. Is it really the best place to put most of these people? Isn’t there a better way?
Now I’m not saying murderers and rapists don’t deserve to be put in jail. I’m not saying con artists and thieves don’t belong in jail. I’m just saying that this police state world has made everything imaginable a crime to create a prison population that is so overcrowded and full of minor offenders that it seems like a complete waste of resources. There doesn’t have to be a war on drugs or a war on parking tickets. We need to think awfully hard about the people we are sending away to the same place where murderers and rapists also inhabit. Jail wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the violence. It’s just a place where they lump all the criminals into one big section and call it even. Is it fair that a shoplifter has to share a cell with a serial killer?
What I’m getting at here is the justice system needs to be revamped. We need to distinguish between real crimes and fabricated ones. Let people live their lives, as long as they are not being violent. The government should not be spying on everyone so closely. You don’t see any other species in the world that have laws and prisons. The only laws they have are the laws of nature. They are born free and only have their freedom taken away if us humans get involved (such as factory farming and fir trapping).
We are born free and then most of our freedoms are taken away and every year we lose a little more. We have lost 99% of our privacy. We can’t just live anymore because we have to adhere to millions of laws and regulations that just constrict us more and more because the ruling class’s only method is to keep tightening their grip on the rest of the world. It’s easier to squeeze tighter than it is to let go. But who says they have the right to tell us how to live? Who gave them that right? Aren’t they the descendants of people who killed millions of Native Americans and stole all their land? I guess there is no justice on stolen land after all. Whoever has benefited from the mass extermination of the Native Americans should be put in prison for genocide. But those kind of laws only apply to those who are not in the ruling class.
Dick Cheney can shoot his friend in the face while quail hunting and get away with it. Imagine if a black kid did the same thing. He’d be looking at 25 to life. Not only are the laws silly, they are also unfair. Those who have money can afford a better defense if they are accused. They also can afford bail. And you wonder why the poor make up a very large percentage of the prison population. They weren’t born with a sliver enema up their ass that allows them to work the justice system to their advantage. But so it goes.
I don’t know if there will ever be a time where all humans are seen as equals. Sure, we’re not all equal, but under the law we certainly should be. There should be no special treatment for those who can simply buy the verdict they want. And certain ethnic groups should not be targeted in a discriminatory way just because statistics show that they are less likely to be able to afford a good defense attorney and end up having to spend time in jail. Not only that, but the fact that even now there are laws specifically in place to oppress those who have nothing and to build up those that have everything. It is a ridiculous paradigm, but will things ever change for the better?
It is up to us as a species to answer this question.
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