Henry David Thoreau tells us that: “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. “ Indeed, there are far too many people, that believe that the law, wrong or right, needs and should be obeyed, always, which doesn’t make sense, because not every law is a just law, and those laws which are unjust and immoral, are, by definition, in conflict with that which is just and right. To somehow believe, that legislators and politicians are not influenced by the times that they are a part of, including the prejudices and favoritism shown to those that have undue influence upon them, is to be badly mistaken, for certain laws have a strong tendency to be in conformance with what those that the most powerful desire, as compared to those laws always being in accordance to that which is right and fair.
Those who take a moral stand, subject to the vagaries of all sorts of punishment and opprobrium by the forces of society that do not desire to see things change, are the very people who are in the vanguard of the necessary change to happen. In other words, those that demonstrate civil unrest, to thus bring to the attention of authorities, that not all is well, represent people of principle, as compared to people of expediency. Undeniably, the society that we are a part of has a strong tendency to reflect the preferences of those in power who frequently believe that they are above moral law, and therefore they impose upon society, the demands that best fit what will be most beneficial for them, but not for society.
In life, we will be called to account, in which the question of the hour will be, as to whether or not, when we were called upon, we stood for that which is right, or whether we unquestionably obeyed the law, no matter how wrong, or even worse, simply were indifferent to it all. Those who control the power levers desire for us to be indifferent or compliant to the laws of the day, thereby providing them with more resources to apply pressure on those who are not so willingly obedient. Indeed, those who truly believe that obedience to the law, is our inherent obligation to the law, are those who have sacrificed their liberty for whatever it is that they so have that provides them with some degree of comfort but have done so, at the price of their good conscience.
Each of us has been gifted with a mind, to utilize to the best of our abilities, of which, one of those important things for each of us to address, is whether or not we desire to behave in a manner that is just and right, with the clear recognition that because not every law is just or right, there will be conflict, and ultimately a showdown between them. Those then that are on the side of right, are those that believe in justice, equally and fairly applied, and those that are on the side of law, whether it be right or wrong, have forsaken their liberty and freedom for obedience, as if obedience was the highest calling that should be aspired to.