Yet another contract I needed to sign recently hit my inbox. It was to stay in conformity with my brokerage's independent contractor agreement, which changed after the National Association of Realtors settlement was reached this summer. Conforming to all of the litigation surrounding the real estate business got me thinking about the essence of law, and how I think our authority's reliance on laws is getting maybe just a little out of hand. We are using laws like a crutch or a bandaid to cover up the fact that we really do not have a common ethic in our society.
More laws don't make things better. God already gave us the ten laws we need. If we let those laws guide society, everything would be fine. Everything would not be perfect since we still live in a foreign, fallen world, but the imperfections would be manageable. People who think more laws will solve our problems must not believe we are fallen.
In just about every industry I've encountered, legalism has taken over. Boards, bureaucracies, and politicians keep making more and more rules with the hope that these rules will solve their problems. But at least three things happen when they make more laws or rules:
An underground forms where people find ways around the new regulation, and profit greatly from providing what has been otherwise taken from people.
Some new vice emerges, like a leak in a boat that pops up somewhere else in a sinking ship. The new vices often involve hypocrisy and corruption of all kinds within the very institution implementing the new law, due to the unnatural tension it causes.
The authorities enforcing the law often need to exercise unnatural demonstrations of their power in order to enforce the law effectively. They often will resort to behavior that is worse than what the law sets out to prevent. Laws that supposedly protect our "rights" lead to this most often, I've noticed.
Laws do not get to the root of the problem, because the problem is a sinking boat. The laws just clog the leaks. If there is a serious vice ailing a society, the culture has to change. The lifestyle of the people has to be influenced in a positive way. We can do this by providing better architecture, art and media, and giving people a deeper sense of purpose. If we enrich people's lives with beautiful surroundings, songs, shows, literature and other arts we can awaken within them the Spirit of God Who can then lead them to a life of virtue.
To cure a vice in society, we have to work on building up a stronger moral center. When laws try to forbid something that is already entrenched in a culture, they just lead to more problems. In order to build a society with a stronger moral center, we have to change the culture before we can change the laws.
Humanity is thirsty for more creative, more beautiful artistic expressions. This spiritual dehydration has led to a slow deterioration of our souls. As a result, the moral core of our civilization is decaying, and the only solution our leaders can come up with is to create more laws and mandates to prevent civilization from falling apart. This reaction is even more dangerous than in past ages, when the world was not as connected as it is today.
We've replaced traditional morality with social justice, while claiming to be more enlightened or "woke". But social justice is a subset of morality, and to focus on it too much is to ignore all other aspects of social goodness and justice. This is why the Church emphasizes the common good over social justice. Social justice focuses on justice for specified social groups. The common good seeks what is good for everyone. When we seek what is good, social justice and justice for all will be added unto us.
"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." --Matthew 6:33
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Featured image imagined with Microsoft Designer.
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