There is a significant difference between laws and legislation.
Historically, law was the process of determining what is just based upon reason and experience.
It’s only within fairly recent times that legislation has quietly displaced those laws that were once based upon reason and experience.
Paul Rosenberg explains why this distinction matters.
He says:
“Legislation is the edict of politicians, and nothing more. Under legislation, reason and experience are not required. Politicians – whom nearly all of us hold in low regard – create this new law and can change it on a whim.”
In our day, this trend has created an almost irresistible urge to solve every perceived problem with legislation.
There are two highly undesirable side effects that are perpetuated by this approach.
The first is that it gives opportunistic politicians a stature they do not deserve as their solutions are inevitably imposed by force rather than adopted by reason.
The second side effect is that people come to place legislated solutions above reality itself.
They obey reflexively, out of intimidation, rather than out of respect for laws that are just.
This heavy-handed approach can hardly be considered in harmony with the concept of genuine liberty.
When we voluntarily organize, cooperate and peacefully persuade others around common interests and goals, that’s when problems get solved.
Share this post