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The Commandments of Men
 Anatole
France once observed, “The
majestic equality of the law forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep
under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” I read that
as a youth and have never forgotten  it.
France’s aphorism should be pondered with another —
Bismarck’s, I think, though I can’t find it — to the effect
that you should no more watch how laws are made than how sausages are
made. Legislating is a revolting business.
Crooked
politicians (if the term isn’t redundant) cut deals. Then they pass
laws. And the rest of us are supposed to obey. Or else.
We have to
obey not because those laws are wise, or good, or necessary, but because,
however arbitrary they may be, they have the power of the state behind
them. Unless we obey thousands of laws, far more than we can keep track
of, we may be punished.
Thus every
law is an “or else,” a threat. Keeping the Ten Commandments,
or even all 613 commandments of the Torah (or Pentateuch), isn’t
enough to protect you from the wrath of the state, which is constantly
adding thousands of new commandments of its own —
“incessantly engaged in legislation,” as C.S. Lewis once put it.
That’s
a lot of threats. At what point will we have enough of
them? This question is seldom asked, since all parties agree that we need
more threats (alias “laws”) and the idea that we already have
enough, or too many, and that some should be repealed, is inadmissible.
Though the
state is the fox, and the rest of us are rabbits, this cunning fox has
convinced most of the rabbits that they need him to protect them. Without
him, as Thomas Hobbes might say, there would be a war of every rabbit
against every rabbit. Thus most of us believe that the state that threatens
us simultaneously guarantees our safety. No wonder many Russians yearn
for another Stalin.
![[Breaker quote for The Commandments of Men: The curse of 'law']](2006breakers/060523.gif) To
most people in our devoutly
political age, disbelief in the state is political atheism. We need government,
don’t we, even if politicians are crooked? Even if government is
organized force and its laws are, at bottom, extortionate threats of
violence? Even if government is what makes huge wars possible?
Some
Christians see obedience to the state as a religious duty. Odd that Jesus said
nothing about it. He did call the Pharisees “blind guides,” who
had obfuscated the commandments of God by multiplying the commandments
of men, which sounds like a prophecy of the modern state. No wonder he was
crucified.
How can
there be a duty to obey countless fickle commandments negotiated by
conspiring politicians meeting in what they themselves call “closed
session”? Imagine what Jefferson would have thought of the
staggering quantity of government secrets and “classified”
information we take for granted — things the government withholds
from us on the pretext that they have to be withheld from our enemies,
including the defunct Nazi and Soviet regimes!
These days
you can never be sure you aren’t violating these myriad
commandments of men, as I once did literally unconsciously — when my
little grandsons took my unlicensed puppy for a walk while I was asleep.
Luckily a vigilant policeman, protecting the public, caught the villains. I got a
ticket, with a threat to revoke my driver’s license if I didn’t
pay the fine.
And who
hasn’t had similar experiences? Land of the Free? I’d call it the
Land of the Licensed. We are “free” to do only what our rulers
choose to permit. That’s hardly what our ancestors meant by
freedom.
If the
words tyranny and servitude now sound rather antique to
us, I think it’s because we no longer recognize them when we see
them, even if they apply to us. Now the
bar for despotism has been raised; we’re content with anything less
onerous than Hitler and Stalin, and our discontents are assuaged by
assurances that, after all, we enjoy the privilege of living in a democracy.
Maybe
democracy really is, as Churchill said, the worst form of government except
for all the others that have been tried. You can see his point. I hope you can
also see the point he didn’t realize he was making.
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2006 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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