subject: The Importance of Law [print this page] The Importance of Law The Importance of Law
Everyone has wished that the law did not exist at one time or another once they have reached adulthood. It could have been in a very simple situation such as being pulled over for speeding in the car; it could have been something far worse. The instant reaction for a motorist who has been pulled over is to be frustrated, annoyed, and angry. However, on the grand scale, the law is incredibly important to modern society. Even people who have wished very badly that it did not exist will probably say, if pressed for an answer, that they are glad that there are laws and that they are enforced.
For one thing, law provides order. Without it, people could just do whatever they wanted. While this seems fun for those who think of driving as fast as they want on the highway, all they have to do is think about how many more accidents there would be, and how catastrophic an accident between two cars traveling at one hundred miles an hour would be in particular, to see how needed the law is. In the same way, it might sound fun to be able to steal from a store, but what would happen to the store owner?
The other thing that the law does is that it keeps people from trying to find their own brand of justice. Without laws, a man could steal from a store that sold televisions. However, the owner could then shoot the man as he walked away with the television. There would be an entire epidemic of people who felt they had been wronged and who wanted revenge. This could lead to many other wrongful deaths; if someone thought another person had killed his brother, for example, even though the person was innocent, and he killed that person for revenge.
The law always keeps those who are physically stronger from taking control through force. An established government with th e support of the people is able to suppress those who would take advantage of others. There are those who advocate a completely free society with no laws to govern others, but this is an unrealistic idea that is pushed forward by people with no sense of how the world actually works; an anarchist society would last for mere minutes. As soon as the laws were stripped away, those who were strong would take power for themselves, exploiting the weak. This, of course, applies to the use of weapons and not just physical strength.
All told, people in modern society only have the freedoms that they enjoy because they live under the law. Without it, life would be a dangerous and horrible thing. Only malicious and violent people would thrive, and they would not even do so for long; others who were equally malicious and violent would target them as threats. A society must have laws in order for the people living in that society to actually be happy, to actually have any chance of a good life.
