It amuses me to hear people pride themselves on "breaking all the rules," as if this made them freer, more adventurous, or more open-minded than the rest of us. The truth of the matter is that rules are freedom's greatest friend, whereas rule-breakers are freedom's greatest enemy.
With crystal-clear rules in place, one can order his affairs, plan for the future, and do any number of things with supreme confidence that he will be left unmolested so long as he stays within those boundaries -- his freedom of action is defined and inviolate. When rules erode, however, one can never tell when his life, liberty, or property might be yanked away from him. The most obvious example is the erosion of the supreme rules set forth in the Constitution, a process that has unleashed government to attack us every day for novel and unexpected reasons. Our judicial system of common law also has eroded to the point that precedent means nothing and courts will decide each case on its own facts, mimicking the civil-law approach of continental Europe -- once again leaving us at the mercy of fickle men and their impenetrable motives, rather than giving us a clear view of what we may do at any point in time. And from a cultural perspective, rules in the form of taboos maintain the heath of civil society and guarantee safe harbor for those who obey them; the destruction of these rules has sown cultural chaos and allows government to fill the void as parent, provider, and caregiver.
Despite their fanciful self-image, youthful adventurers who disregard rules are the handmaidens of elderly plutocrats and politicians who yearn for greater control over us. The worship of "youth culture" that has reigned ever since the 1960s has paralleled the death of law and the growth of government power, and this is no accident.
With crystal-clear rules in place, one can order his affairs, plan for the future, and do any number of things with supreme confidence that he will be left unmolested so long as he stays within those boundaries -- his freedom of action is defined and inviolate. When rules erode, however, one can never tell when his life, liberty, or property might be yanked away from him. The most obvious example is the erosion of the supreme rules set forth in the Constitution, a process that has unleashed government to attack us every day for novel and unexpected reasons. Our judicial system of common law also has eroded to the point that precedent means nothing and courts will decide each case on its own facts, mimicking the civil-law approach of continental Europe -- once again leaving us at the mercy of fickle men and their impenetrable motives, rather than giving us a clear view of what we may do at any point in time. And from a cultural perspective, rules in the form of taboos maintain the heath of civil society and guarantee safe harbor for those who obey them; the destruction of these rules has sown cultural chaos and allows government to fill the void as parent, provider, and caregiver.
Despite their fanciful self-image, youthful adventurers who disregard rules are the handmaidens of elderly plutocrats and politicians who yearn for greater control over us. The worship of "youth culture" that has reigned ever since the 1960s has paralleled the death of law and the growth of government power, and this is no accident.
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