The criminality of good sense

I am constantly amused at how everyone seems to want to confuse and complicate existence. This would not be necessary, for instance, if we adopted a simple law encapsulated in a single sentence.

This sounds like I am about to launch into a religious diatribe – but this is not the case. The ‘one law’ states that “No one shall intentionally and/or negligently deceive, exploit or seriously hurt anyone else”. We would, of course, still need a benevolent policing body and courts to arbitrate on the interpretation of each bit of the law – and particularly to determine ‘intentionally’, ‘negligently’ and ‘seriously’. But the effort would all be focused on just a single sentence and we would gain more consistency than courts ever do now. The law would also cover areas which it currently leaves alone – like ‘road rage’, disputes with neighbours and adultery. In the workplace it would be more a challenge because it might undermine managerial authority – although that would all be worked out over time.

So why do we not currently have such a simple basic rule? I think it is for many reasons. One of these is religious – as each adherent would like to add moral precepts from their own faith. Another reason is that politicians are an interest group and their role would be undermined if there was no need to legislate. A single law would also remove the need for nation states and we could then relax and forget about the historical arbitrariness of country borders. This, itself, would be a threat to those with xenophobic tendencies and to other interest groups like border guards and immigration officials. The removal of nation states would also remove the need for armies and armaments – which would undermine the biggest interest group of all.

I guess it is eccentric to want simplicity and order based more on self-control than a mass of laws nobody can possibly ever really know – and imposed by a heavy-handed authority? It is also unfortunately quite acceptable to state any crazy beliefs and declare weird precepts for conduct – so long as they are in the name of a religion or a political movement. But to be just sensible is probably a crime.

 

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