What’s the purpose of law? Sociologist Max Weber says it’s “to regulate the flow of human interaction.” The Missouri Revised Statutes, 476.001, in defining the purpose of law, notes that “An efficient, well operating and productive judiciary is essential to the preservation of the people’s liberty and prosperity.” It seems there are hundreds of reasons for laws to exist and giving those reasons some level of importance has resulted in the existence of thousands and thousands of laws. Most people obey these laws, but I think these same people would go through life doing the same things even if the laws didn’t exist. These people are not confrontational and don’t want to hurt others. Other people break the law for whatever reason – they choose to ignore any reasonable standards of behavior, they want to gain at the expense of others or they may simply decide some law is unreasonable.

Those who threaten others do know that those “others” will be law abiding. Threats expect this behavior from their intended victims, the victim acts just as the threat would have predicted and the subsequent outcome favors the threat’s wishes. This makes sense. Sheep obey, they don’t question, and if upset with another’s actions, will bleat at government to pass a new law prohibiting whatever the sheep now find offensive. Since sheep obey, there is no thought that someone might just ignore the law completely (thus the reaction of a sheep when threatened – disbelief).

Decided not to be a sheep? If so, then obeying a law is a choice. Completely ignoring a law becomes an acceptable course of action. What laws to control your actions? Instead, create your own code of conduct. This may or may not overlap laws from some legislature, that isn’t important. What is paramount is your own creation of your code and your decision to abide by it. For example, I will not abuse an animal, nor will I tolerate animal abuse if I am nearby. I have no idea what laws exist regarding animal abuse in my area, that’s not relevant to my decision. I will try not to murder someone. That would be an act of last resort, but I understand that in some situation it might be necessary. If that happens, do I rot in hell for eternity? I don’t believe so and, yes, I have already discussed it with God. I will kill anything that is threatening my life – or perhaps better stated, anything that I believe is threatening my life. Sometimes when threatened, the threat believes he is going to make me fear for my life but his act just isn’t working and I can tell him to go away. On the other hand, when on Interstate highways I virtually ignore speed limits. I consider them suggestions, nothing more.

My point is in you making your choices, not automatically obeying something written by elected officials who are not in your situation anyway. They’re not living your life, they shouldn’t get to rule over you. Once you have clearly decided that some laws are optional and some are just stupid, you will lose the hesitation that sheep have when faced with a situation where survival means throwing “the law” into the fire and acting based on instinct and self-preservation. Your decision – obey the law or follow your own code. Your own code may not make you popular, but you won’t have to walk around bleating.