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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely,
by tut-urut-utut 5y ago
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
It's up to ever single individual to interpret what is just and what is unjust, with all its consequences.
I, personally, find that the restriction is stupid, doesn't bring any benefit, and would have no problem to completely disregard it on a moral basis, if I had no fear of consequences.
- ArnoNym 5y agoThe tricky part is how to identify what is an unjust law. If each individual is free to make that decision and not bound, that is the absence of a state, that is called anarchy. The consequence is not freedom, because those who have power will rule anyway. Therefore in a democracy the power to determine what is just is vested in the legislator and the power to apply those laws is vested in a government that responds to the parliament that put it in place and the power to oversee the application of laws lies with independent courts, the judges of which have nothing to fear and nothing to gain in adjudicating a case. Don't like that system? That's calling for a revolution. To me, that's the wrong path. I prefer to live with the bad decisions or compromises a government makes instead of fearing the gangs and guns in my neighbourhood.
- tut-urut-utut 5y agoI agree with you, but it’s not either or. You don’t need to drop the whole system just because you find some parts of are unjust. Opposing, ignoring and fighting nonsense is the way to go, because the rules change only when something previously illegal becomes socially and morally acceptable. That’s how we got cannabis legalisation and same sex marriage.