My mother had a few bromides that have stuck with me over the years. "Don't poop where you sleep" was a good one. "Keep your pecker out of the payroll" is one that has kept me out of trouble for the better part of 35 years.
But she used to repeat, watching the news of the day, that "You can't legislate morality." I've been working that out since I was 18, and on it's face, it's completely bullshit, since Moses' Ten Commandments and the Hammurabi code are both results of the steady and continual watching of goal-oriented behavior long enough to extract and embody those things which were most important to a burgeoning society.
Thus is morality, and thus is it embodied in law.
But I get what Ma was trying to express. We've watched it get worse and worse over the past 35 years. What she meant, and what we've seen, are laws that contradict morality.
Morality is simply the rank ordering of patterns of behavior that are most important to us. Think about it. What is the best thing you could be?
Maybe that thing would be someone who voluntarily accepted to be denied by his friends, betrayed by his church, and tortured to death by his state, in order to wash the burden of sin from mankind. Something like that, I reckon. I can't conceive of anything more heroic. Hit me up in the comments if you can perceive anything more awesome than that.
So, that's the highest, as nearly as I can determine.
Here recently, anyone who would try to act in such a manner would be branded as a "white supremacist" (regardless of race. See: Larry Elder.) He would be branded as a "domestic terror risk".
I think what Ma meant when she said "you can't legislate morality" was that it is very important for us not to confuse God with the government.
God loves you.
Your government looks upon you as chattel.
God expects you to sacrifice appropriately to become a better person and strive to transcend the suffering that is endemic to living on this mortal coil.
Your government expects you to consume as you are instructed, be smart enough to pull levers and push buttons upon command and no smarter. To readily and cheerfully act in a manner that benefits them personally.
We can see a diversion between the two ideals. The government is not your God. It is comprised of barely competent office holders who have no consideration for your lot in life and are actively hostile toward you if your interests conflict with theirs. We'll never fix that. It's baked in. We have to realize this fact and simply go on our way...
Our way to becoming worthy of Christ's sacrifice, on a path to transcend the pain of existence through forthright thought and action.
When choosing who may represent us, I recommend looking for those who might defend us from those wearying bureaucrats described above. We should demand that those who represent us have the chief quality of wanting us to be free of restriction, able to achieve our goals, and unfettered in our natural rights.
In that manner, we may realize a government that once again is more concerned with the freedom of its citizens, while disregarding the temptation to force us into a chosen manner of behavior.
That is the way. To demand more of ourselves and expect more of those who wish to speak on our behalf.
Unclean
