following the law for it’s own sake is a form of slave morality
People don’t follow the law “for it’s own sake”. They have material reasons for supporting or transgressing, which they rationalize after the fact.
Sometimes it’s practical (driving the speed limit or not based on flow of traffic) and sometimes it’s formative (being hyper sensitive to street crime because you’ve got a memory of being robbed / reflectively shoplifting because you grew up food insecure). Maybe you’re the victim of abuse or just OCD.
But there are broad social, historical, and economic reasons to support/oppose a given legal code.
I think that in an ideal society, everyone would follow their own moral values and laws wouldn’t even be needed. That’s probably not achievable, but we can at least try to approach it.
I think the root of immorality is the prescriptive morality which is commonplace today. People only act pseudo-moral because either:
They are afraid of punishment (fully selfish reason)
God, the law, or whoever else said so (deferral to authority)
“Society would collapse” if they didn’t (still a selfish justification)
in reality, very few actually have internal moral values. As soon as those reasons disappear, they see no reason not to act immorally. Alternatively, they follow this imposed morality so strictly, that they don’t notice when it leads them to immoral actions (take for example religious fundamentalism or fascist regimes).
The solution is of course education, but our current education systems are terribly suited to producing moral people.
I think that in an ideal society, everyone would follow their own moral values and laws wouldn’t even be needed.
Morals don’t come ex nihilo. People develop them from social interactions and survival patterns, typically at a young age. The broad purpose of law is to set a publicly recognized boundary for universal conduct. It isn’t to simply be mean to people, but to publicly declare what a community of people values as socially valuable.
in reality, very few actually have internal moral values.
People largely have a certain internal sense of social justice. But they have a limited capacity to engage with their neighbors from any kind of authority position. The internal morality can get twisted when you constantly see yourself as a victim and feel the urge to right some existential wrong. Portraying one group as a victim and another as an aggressor is a classic propaganda technique used to inflame hostility between neighbors and socially justify violence.
The solution is of course education
At some level, sure. But it is difficult to inoculate a public at-large from all forms of deceptive media.
At another level, the solution needs to be establishing a general level of public contentedness and satisfaction. Agitation is less effective in a social circle that isn’t under high degrees of anxiety or fearful of deprivation. So long as we have the threat of poverty and stochastic violence hanging over people’s heads, we’re going to have the material for propaganda that agitate them into tension with their neighbors.
People don’t follow the law “for it’s own sake”. They have material reasons for supporting or transgressing, which they rationalize after the fact.
Sometimes it’s practical (driving the speed limit or not based on flow of traffic) and sometimes it’s formative (being hyper sensitive to street crime because you’ve got a memory of being robbed / reflectively shoplifting because you grew up food insecure). Maybe you’re the victim of abuse or just OCD.
But there are broad social, historical, and economic reasons to support/oppose a given legal code.
I think that in an ideal society, everyone would follow their own moral values and laws wouldn’t even be needed. That’s probably not achievable, but we can at least try to approach it.
I think the root of immorality is the prescriptive morality which is commonplace today. People only act pseudo-moral because either:
in reality, very few actually have internal moral values. As soon as those reasons disappear, they see no reason not to act immorally. Alternatively, they follow this imposed morality so strictly, that they don’t notice when it leads them to immoral actions (take for example religious fundamentalism or fascist regimes).
The solution is of course education, but our current education systems are terribly suited to producing moral people.
Morals don’t come ex nihilo. People develop them from social interactions and survival patterns, typically at a young age. The broad purpose of law is to set a publicly recognized boundary for universal conduct. It isn’t to simply be mean to people, but to publicly declare what a community of people values as socially valuable.
People largely have a certain internal sense of social justice. But they have a limited capacity to engage with their neighbors from any kind of authority position. The internal morality can get twisted when you constantly see yourself as a victim and feel the urge to right some existential wrong. Portraying one group as a victim and another as an aggressor is a classic propaganda technique used to inflame hostility between neighbors and socially justify violence.
At some level, sure. But it is difficult to inoculate a public at-large from all forms of deceptive media.
At another level, the solution needs to be establishing a general level of public contentedness and satisfaction. Agitation is less effective in a social circle that isn’t under high degrees of anxiety or fearful of deprivation. So long as we have the threat of poverty and stochastic violence hanging over people’s heads, we’re going to have the material for propaganda that agitate them into tension with their neighbors.