| "Regardless of if the laws are just or not, they must be followed to be part of the society. There is nothing making it OK to break laws. Just because I think the marijuana laws are bullcrap doesn't mean I can just toke up whenever I want not expect to suffer some kind of penalty because of it."
To reiterate a previous example: When Harriet Tubman helped slaves escape, violating the United States fugitive slave laws, she worked in secrecy through her "Underground Railroad." So when many people helped slaves break their chains of bondage, they were doing so against the law. Should they have not because they were breaking the law?
"Believing a law is wrong does not give on the moral basis to disobey it. If one feels a law is unfair then one should speak up and fight to change it. Breaking a law and sneaking around, hoping no one finds out is immoral it benefits only the law breaker and worsens the situation for others who are suffering under the unjust law."
I guess so.
"Law is a historically evolving and culturally specific enterprise in which moral argument, distinctive interpretive practices, and force are brought to bear on the organization of social life."
Basically, laws are implemented within social context. Just 70 years ago, many Americans agreed upon segregation ("separate but equal"), but now many do not. Now, people agree that deportation of illegal immigrants/ denying public education is legally justified. Personally, I hope in the future, this ideology will become rarer because no human being is illegal. |