by Roderic Williams

Created on: November 02, 2009

I don't think there would be a such thing as 'good' if there were no rules. There would be nothing to compare it to. If there were no models for people to say "okay, this is a good person, and this is a bad person" then we couldn't really say what's good or bad. I think the existence of rules keeps people from deviating from the norm for fear of consequences, but if there were no negative consequences for people's actions, people could ideally, do whatever they wanted without fear of retribution or being outcasted. Imagine there being no consequence for murder or rape. How many scorned people are out there plotting revenge on people, but never act on their thoughts because they fear the repercutions of their actions? I think there are more than you can imagine.

How many times have you been speeding on the interstate, thinking nothing of it, and slowed down because you saw a police car? If that cop car wasn't positioned on the side of the road, would you have slowed down? What if you could steal 1 million dollars and never get caught, would you do that, knowing that stealing is "bad behavior"? I think people are only as good as their options. People weigh the pros and cons of their decisions and if the pros outweigh the cons, then they act on their decision. If there weren't any cons to consider, people would act on whatever thought they had without considering the repercutions, because frankly, there would be none.

I personally think the world would slip into chaos, people would be animalistic and act based on their instincts. Morals, values, justice, and guilt would cease to exist because people wouldn't have been taught to feel remorse or sorry for their actions. People would do what makes them feel pleasure and avoid pain. Ultimately, I think with humans being the dominant species on the Earth, we'd cause so much destruction that we'd ruin the environment and eventually destroys ourselves. I don't think people fully understand how much laws and rules make up the way we live.

All in all, the world is a much better place with the rules and laws that we have in place. No matter how often people complain that the justice system is flawed and geared towards the wealthy, without the system in place the world would be a much darker place.

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