Whose law is it anyway?

Let me preface this by saying I do believe that we need some rules/laws in order for society to function. But as a Libertarian I feel that they should be the bare minimum and should be decided at the lowest level of government that needs to be involved. We have so many laws in our country, states and cities now that no one could possibly know all of them. There are laws that are terribly outdated, laws that contradict each other and laws that pertain to issues that don't even exist anymore.

Recently a couple of Facebook friends posted a link to a newspaper article from San Francisco regarding the city making it illegal to throw food scraps into the trash. That got me thinking about our propensity as humans to want to force others to do what we think is right. That leads to the argument of who decides what is right? What happens if the "wrong" people get tired of being pushed around and controlled by the "right"? Isn't that one of the ways that wars are started?

So when we are championing our favorite causes, our idea of what is right, and pushing for or supporting new laws being passed I think we should stop and ask ourselves, "is this worth going to war for?" Because even if it doesn't lead to an all out guns and missiles war, it could lead to a battle that isn't necessary and that hurts a great many people and perhaps even the cause that it was created to help.

See the problem is that while we can coerce, threaten and force people to comply with what has been decided to be "right" we can't force them to care. And until they care there will never be any real or lasting change.

So what do we do then? Do we throw our hands in the air and just give up? Do we let "anything goes" and anarchy reign? No, we live our lives the way we believe we should live them. We discuss the issues that are important to us with our friends and family. We raise our children with an awareness of what we believe is important, necessary and right. That is how real change will come. And it will last because those some values that we share with our friends and family they will share with their friends and family and they will continue to be passed along.

So if you feel stongly about a cause get out there and tell two friends. And they'll tell two friends and so on and so on and so on. If you don't get that reference type it into Google along with "Breck shampoo commercial". :-)