Education or Legislation? (Part 2), 7-3-2010

 [Continued from Education or Legislation? (Part 1), 7-3-2010. sch 2/8/23.]

Not everyone with a hobbyhorse can ride that hobbyhorse to every possible legislature. We are only protected by our federal and state constitutions and the laziness of legislators. 

I say that when we have a divergence of opinion about what is best and we are to achieve that best, we will have a breakdown of the law's effectiveness. I have in mind here Prohibition. Certain groups found alcohol the source of great wickedness. Others did not and flouted the law. The first group defied human nature and got a bootlegger culture. Thus, the limit of legislating morality when the morality lacks unit.

Consider how we obey laws regarding murder or theft. No one questions the underlying morality of those laws.

Or consider the problem of obesity, which seems rampant nowadays. No one can surely disagree obesity is a good thing. However, I say we can disagree about how to deal with the problem. We can deal with obesity using any of the following methods:

1. Educate the public on the behaviors that work against obesity and leave the citizenry to make their own choices.
2. Use the civil law to force the purveyors of fast food to provide healthy food.
3. Legislate standards for restaurants to provide healthy food.
4. Legislate certain behaviors by the citizenry and by food providers for healthier food using punitive measures that could be economic or criminal or both.

 The first three lack inclusivity in coverage or certainty of effectiveness. The last scenario encompasses with an apparently effective means of enforcement all citizens and all food providers. 

What happens when sanctions fail against the person wanting a cheeseburger and onion rings? Isn't the government then faced with a defiance it must crush with tougher sanctions? What will the people do when the law makes a cheeseburger and onion rings an illegal commodity?

For me, such a law returns us to the Prohibition Era. We risk corruption political and moral with such a law, one that denies natural law. People know when a law lacks the moral force of the natural law. What legislation offers the politicians is the satisfying of a particular special interest. The special interest gets the feeling of its importance through the apparent force of the law on the whole on the public. 

[But consider the history of the Prohibition Party as a lesson to be learned on the limits of such a legislative program. sch 2/8/23.]

sch

 [Continued in Education or Legislation? (Part 3), 7-3-2010. sch 2/8/23.]