Channel Button

There are 14 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #7 by Helium's members.

Debate_icon

Society & Lifestyle   >

Social Values & Norms

Personal liberty vs. community order and law: Which should prevail?

Results so far:

Liberty
48% 116 votes Total: 244 votes
Order
52% 128 votes

What is a community but a set of individuals who share some common interest, resource, or culture? Any group, any *set* is defined as a finitely related unit comprised of unique and special individuals, or members.

Ask any economist, any teacher, any parent their philosophy as professed to a child, and inevitably the common ground will dwell somewhere around the basic principle of the littlest things meaning something. They will preach that the pennies add up to dollars. They will implore the little cherubs to heed the wisdom that the 5 minutes here and the 10 minutes there spent studying one's science terms will result in a good grade on the quiz. They will point out that even when every minute seems like an eternity - "look how big and old you are already!", the time will pass and the day will come. They will utter the profundity that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

And so it is with a thing called community. Or culture. Or society. Although the masses need governance and the big picture needs observing - never, EVER, should such operations and order come at the expense of the precious and urgently vital indivduals of whom this larger populace is comprised. Piss away enough pennies - and the dollars will disappear. Piss off enough people, and you no longer have a society to "protect" or kingdom to rule!

Who is the law supposed to protect? Which chaos does order prevent? The answer to both questions is the individual. It is the individual being held-up at gunpoint who needs the rule of law and the protection of its enforcement. It is the individual wielding said gun whose chaos needs to be reigned in and governed. We do not have resources enough to govern the minutia of all that happens one neighbor to the next so we have this grand scheme of general laws which, yes, vary state to state but nonetheless attempt to herd and march us all down the same path at the same time. No wonder there is such a backlog in our judicial system. No wonder every other television advertisement I see is by a personal injury attorney pitching his ability to give the individual the justice that he is due.

The lawyers, nor the injured are the villains here. The very existence of this market speaks to the woeful inadequacy of public law to serve the people justly. Is it right that a person whose life, liberty and/or property has been unfairly compromised needs to expend yet further resources in the pursuit


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Personal liberty vs. community order and law: Which should prevail?

Liberty
  • 1 of 10

    by Joseph Whalen

    Personal liberty is an absolute right that all people are entitled to. Community order and laws are subjective and i...read more

  • 2 of 10

    by Judy Joyce

    IN A CONTEST OF IDEALS BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND COMMUNITY: INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY IS CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED. ...read more

Order
  • 1 of 4

    by Bernadette Jasmin

    It is a basic human need to have free will. What does this personal liberty entail? Personal liberty is a need that...read more

  • 2 of 4

    by Jonathan Young

    How a person answers this question depends on how he or she understands human nature. "A person is smart," the old sa...read more

Add your voice

Know something about Personal liberty vs. community order and law: Which should prevail??
We want to hear your view. Write_penWrite now!

What is Helium? | User Guide | Community | Link to Helium | Privacy | User agreement | DMCA

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA