The Law

The Law



We Americans are obsessed with rule-following and the law to the point of ignorance. We think of rules and laws as something from on high that must not be broken. We don’t believe we are free to ignore the law, even if it kills us to obey it. We quite literally accept the notion that the law is what is supreme and the law is what is noble and that it is the law that must be defended at all costs. We give our lives to protect the law.

The fact is, that makes no sense. At all. Where do I begin?

The law can’t be supreme, only our lives can hold supreme meaning. Laws cannot be noble, only people can be noble. The law doesn’t need to be defended, because it can’t be harmed; in fact, it doesn’t even exist except inside people’s heads. People need to be defended, because we can be harmed, we can cease to exist. And because we are irreplaceable and life is sacred, we need to take steps to defend and protect life. Therefore, giving our lives to defend something that can’t be harmed makes no sense. What is the law for if it is not to protect and defend our lives?

Here are a couple of obvious basics about laws, which will probably not come as any surprise. In the first place, the law and the rules are nothing more than words. They are words written on paper or posted on signs. The words do not come from on high, or from beyond, nor are they eternal and immutable. They are not by any means guaranteed to be fair, or right, or moral, or correct, and there is no legal obligation for them to be any of those things.

Laws are in fact wholly arbitrary and they are written to protect the interests of those who write them. That’s why law in its current form exists. That’s why it is so heavily propagandized and lauded in countless TV shows where we get all teary eyed over ideas like justice and righteousness, and we assign only the highest ideals to those who make our laws and those who are heavily armed and will shoot us in the back to uphold them.

Yes, we are trained and taught over and again to obey the laws. We are threatened with frightening stories about what happens when you break the law. We are constantly shown examples of those who break the law. They are held up to us by the scruff of the neck, eyes blackened by police brutality and torture, all legal, of course, and we are told hair-raising stories of their dastardly deeds and the wrongs they’ve done to the innocent. The message is clear. Only bad people break the law. And when the law is broken, terrible things are the consequence. Without the law to steady the keel of social order our whole system would break down and devolve into chaos and disorder, violence and cruelty, and it would all go to shit overnight. It would end everything.

Excuse me while I yawn. Yes, yes, I’ve heard it all a million times just like you have, but I’ve actually sat down and thought about it. And what I found out is that, honestly, all of that is pretty much crap. All of it is contrived and designed to keep you and me and everyone else living inside of self-enforced boundaries that prevent us from treading on the lawns of those who want us to believe we have no right to walk wherever we like in a country that we pay for 100 percent. That takes some amazing brainwashing. And we clearly do have that brainwashing, because we all live in utter and desperate fear of doing the wrong thing, or being perceived to have done something wrong, and the mere sight of those glowing red lights in our rear-view mirrors is enough to make even the bravest of us tremble with stomach-churning anxiety.

It’s really quite revolting, in my humble opinion. I think it’s time for all of us to at least stop long enough to look this whole subject right in the eye and size it up. Let’s see what it really is, and who it’s all about, and what the reasons and true purposes behind law truly are. This short but interesting adventure could possibly change the way you think of law and rules entirely, and it may very well empower you in ways you never knew existed. It might not do a thing for you, and there are definitely those who will be unable to do this exercise, feeling that they are breaking yet some other unwritten law. The one that says do not question authority. This exercise will indeed separate out those who believe authority is granted by the people, from those who believe authority is natural and cast in stone and must never ever be questioned. To those fitting the latter description, you have my condolences. To those who are unafraid to take an intellectual trip into the idea of laws and rules and get a new perspective on things, I say let’s do it.

Laws and rules are written by human beings no different than ourselves. The only difference between those who write the laws and make the rules and the rest of us is that they have the pen and they are in the official “rooms” where our laws are written. That’s about it for qualifications. That is it for correctness, righteousness, accuracy, morality, ethics and every other adjective you might automatically assign to the concept of law. The bottom line is that laws and rules are a man-made thing. They are not necessary to human life. Human life can and has existed and thrived without a single law being in existence. The reality is that life on Earth can get along just fine without man-made laws being imposed on us, we don’t need them in any way, shape or form to live a good and meaningful life and do what we’re here to do in this world.

It is man-made law that needs us to exist, it cannot continue without us. It needs us to agree to acknowledge it and abide by it, but there is in fact no natural thing, no natural obligation for any humans to obey any man-made laws.

I know that sounds strange, but look at it this way. Think of the other animals in the world, and that is what we are, we are animals, just one of the many kinds of animal life on this planet. Can you name one other animal besides man that obeys any man-made laws? Do dogs and birds and cats keep off the grass, because there is a keep off the grass sign posted there? No, they do not. They don’t care about any signs, and they don’t care about any rules, and it’s not just because they can’t read. Even if they could read, they still wouldn’t care. To them, if a place exists and they want to walk on it, they just go walk on it. The entire concept of permission or allowance or rules would be something they simply would not understand.

To them, the idea of not being allowed to walk somewhere or do anything “because it is against the law” would be meaningless. And that’s because it really is meaningless. It’s all made up by guys who want things that way, it’s not based on any kind of natural law. “No Trespassing” signs will not prevent a single deer or bear or raccoon or rat or cricket or worm from going wherever it wants to. It couldn’t care less about any posted signs, and the fact is it would be very difficult to take aside a raccoon or deer and explain to them that there are laws and that those laws must be obeyed.

The deer, if it could understand you, would listen to you speak and then it would look at you and say, “Why? Why must I obey any creature on this planet beyond myself? According to who? I am in charge of my life, and this world belongs equally to all who live on it. I need no permission to go anywhere or do anything I like. I may eat whatever I find to eat wherever I find it. The food belongs to no one. If I find it and am eating it, obviously, it is mine to eat. No one else can own it. What a ridiculous idea. You are funny human, and unfortunately not too bright. We animals bow to no man, or beast. We are free and the world is ours. There are no rulers, rules or laws that are real beyond the laws of nature. We do not recognize your false claims of ownership of what is freely ours and always has been.”

And they would be right.

There are no other animals than man on the face of the Earth that would give one second’s consideration to anyone telling them, “You can’t do that!” Animals wouldn’t even pause long enough to flip you off. It would literally mean nothing to them what we think or demand of them or each other. Our notions of obligated obedience are complete nonsense to them (and they call them the dumb animals).

All the other animals on Earth understand what life is and who they are, and they know the real laws of the world, and they simply live by them. They don’t need animal police, and they don’t wage animal wars. They don’t have animal gangs who run around destroying other animals homes just for the fun of it or to hoard all of the food even though they could never eat it all, but only don’t want others to be able to eat. The animals wouldn’t put up with that for one second even if it ever did happen in their kingdom.

I’m afraid that whole hoarding and ownership thing is only in our kingdom, and it’s no more valid here than it is out there, only we’re not smart enough to realize that. Our minds can be gotten into and messed with so much that we no longer understand that we all have the right to food and shelter and life; or at the very least that no one has any conceivable right to prevent us from having those things. Animals know that without needing to talk about it. They have no compulsion to grab it all up for themselves and let all the other animals starve to death or be deprived of the use of the natural shelter all around. It’s natural, simple, straightforward, obvious reality.

Animals also don’t kill unless it’s for food or in self-defense, with the exception of some species’ testosterone-saturated males who will sometimes act like jerks and do mean things, but that is the exception, not the norm. Most often these males will fight each other around mating seasons. This is the time that they are driven to prove themselves the strongest, smartest male in the group, and when they achieve that status, the females say, “You will do to father my offspring.” It’s not very romantic, but it sure is sensible. And the males are happy as can be, because they get to do the one and only thing, more than often, that they’re any good for. I’m sorry, but it’s true. I don’t make this stuff up, check it for yourself.

It is the female, the lioness, who is the hunter and who brings home the bacon for the family. It is the female and the matriarch who is the spiritual leader and boss, from elephants to the humans smart enough to realize that and go with the flow. The males are lazy and aggressive and are often otherwise, sorry, but basically useless and annoying. That’s the breaks. That’s not to say they aren’t a hell of a lot of fun and we’d be lost without them. Okay, I’m having some fun at the expense of males, I couldn’t resist. Males are indeed needed and they are pretty cool.

One example of a very cool male is a 500-pound silverback gorilla. They are so strong they could tear your head off in a second, but you know what? They don’t. There’s something there worth noticing.

The amazing power these creatures have is not something they abuse, even though they could abuse it for personal gain anytime they wanted to. They have no desire to abuse others with their power. Once again this is an aberration mostly human animals suffer from, with our powerful males feeling no compulsion at all to restrain their ability to abuse others for personal gain, or just for the pleasure it gives them to do it. They get off on it. For the gorillas, self-restraint is a natural law that does not require policing to enforce. It only requires being a natural animal to understand the world they live in, and they have a natural respect for the lives of others. Why would they be motivated to be abusive of anyone? What would it get them that they don’t already have? You see, it’s not a burden for them. It’s common sense based on the reality and truth of natural law.

It’s really very simple and reasonable when we’re talking natural law. It only gets complicated when we’re talking about human-made laws, because those are basically a whole lot of crap.

The whole point of human-made laws is to prevent people from doing certain things. That’s really what it boils down to, and it’s not always a bad idea. Sometimes the best thing a community can do is get together and decide things like, it’s not okay for people to kill each other just because they want your stuff. It’s not okay to walk into someone else’s house and take their stuff. It’s not okay to hurt people because you want their stuff or just because you don’t like them. Everyone agrees to the rules, because they’re equal and logical and they apply to everyone in a fair and sensible way.

Having those rules in place makes sense and it allows the people of that community to have a shared value system, which can be a very good thing. It lets people feel safer as they go about their business and it allows steps to be taken when someone breaks the rules and causes harm or damage to others that is unfair or unjustified. It makes their community a nicer place to live, because they’ve agreed they won’t be victimized by evil people, and they will stand together and run those bad guys out of town, or otherwise deal with them.

It’s all just too tiresome, frustrating and time consuming when bad guys breeze in and rape and pillage the place every five minutes, and face it, who wouldn’t get real tired of that sort of thing? Laws are put in place to define an agreed-upon right and wrong and to uphold and defend that shared agreement to benefit the whole community. It’s a good arrangement for a group of honorable people to live by.

The trouble is, mankind is often not very honorable. In fact, some people are downright rotten to the core. They will lie and overstate things, make false claims and accusations, and they do it to get something they don’t deserve, but want anyway. And they aren’t ashamed of it in the least, at least until they get caught and are proven to be greasy slimy liars who end up in jail. That’s another series of laws we quickly passed, “No greasy slimy liars when it comes to public dealings.” You can do it at home with your own family, but not to anyone else, because we don’t have to put up with your private tyranny and delusions of grandeur and entitlement to have it all your way. There is no such thing in the real world, pal, so keep it to yourself. (Unless, of course, you’re the President of the United States. He’s the decider, according to him. Like I said, delusions of grandeur.)

It’s all quite reasonable. And to the extent that the laws are made and agreed to by the same people who will have to follow them, then it’s a pretty good deal. They can change their laws when they need changing, and no one is forced to comply with anything against their will.

But the laws have to be fair and treat everyone equal or it’s not law anymore, it’s corruption. And all of that is easy to see when you’re directly involved in your own self-governing. Where the people are the law, it’s quite difficult for a cadre of weasels to move in and take over, because they have no power over anyone else.

And that’s precisely why the entire idea of power over others was shoved into the law books. Human weasels exist. They are real and they want to be in charge of others. If you think about it for a minute, it should become apparent why anyone would want to have power over others. Claiming that you have power over others entitles you to get away with wrongdoing. It entitles you to treat others unfairly and prevent them from being able to do anything to protect themselves from you. Power over others is great for the sociopaths who crave it so badly. Power over others is not a normal thing to want, and most of us would have little desire for it.

Power over others is not a natural thing. It is not necessary and it is rarely something people welcome. We don’t like anyone having power over our lives, and we don’t need it. It doesn’t help us in any way. When anyone has power over our lives it only helps them, those who have the power. It enables them to decide what the rules are, regardless of whether we like it or not, and there are only two rules once power over others is introduced into the law books:

Rule number one is that he who has the guns makes the rules.
Rule number two is that he who has the money makes the rest of the rules.
There is no rule number three. That’s all of it. It doesn’t matter if there are a million laws on the books, those are the two that it all boils down to. And they say the law is too complicated to understand. Nope. It’s as simple as can be.

Those who are represented by rule number one, and those who are represented by rule number two may disagree with the ranking order, but that’s really nothing that affects the rest of us. It doesn’t matter who’s number one, the end result is all the same to those who don’t get to make any of the rules. What it boils down to for us is that the rich people will make rules all day and all night that say rich people matter and you don’t, and the guys with the guns will show up and get you if you don’t happen to like those rules. That’s our whole legal system in a nutshell. Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong. You can’t. That really is what it is.

Something else it is, is totally invalid. The laws that put power over others on the books are false laws based on nothing valid. Power over others is not a necessity of life. We don’t need no stinkin’ power over others, nor do we need anyone to have power over us. We would do just fine, thank you, without power on this Earth. We’d be fine, we would thrive, we would get along somehow without being told what we cannot do by twits who think they own us. It is they who would not fare well. They would cease to be. It is they who need us in order to continue existing, not the other way around. That is what I mean when I say “natural” law.

Because what is the law really if it is not the law of life? If it is not the law of simple truth? If our man-made laws are not the written expression of human truth, then they can’t be valid. And the fact is, we don’t need laws to be written if they are natural laws, because natural laws can’t be broken. Natural laws cannot be shot dead or eradicated or destroyed or corrupted. They just are what they are, because that’s what they are.

For instance, it is a natural law that females give birth. You can pass a man-made law that requires men to give birth, and women will be arrested if they keep it up, but you already know that man-made law won’t change a thing. It’s a stupid law. It’s demanding that natural law be subordinated to some stupid human’s idiotic will. It doesn’t work that way and there’s nothing you can do about it.

As amusing as that may be, it is not a silly measurement of validity, it’s really quite valid, and it’s something more serious and real and worthy of our consideration than those men who make our millions of man-made laws would like us to notice.

There really is such a thing as natural justice. We are all capable of knowing what feels fair and right. We are capable of witnessing acts and of knowing right away if they were just and fair or criminally unjust. It’s a simple thing to determine, and this again is something we need no man-made laws to frame or define for us.

Justice is within us, and it is self-evident; when we know the given facts, we can come up with the just conclusions. It’s a beautiful thing that the rest of the animal world enjoys every day. But in our part of the animal kingdom we can’t seem to get everyone to play fair and be honest, or be reasonable, or be led by a sense of justice or fairness. In the human animal, there is an anomaly, people who don’t care about what’s fair or right or just and who have no interest in anything beyond getting what they want for themselves no matter who it belongs to or who they must hurt or cheat to get it. These people are obviously not right in the head, but unfortunately, these people tend to be the ones that make our laws, because they are also the ones who crave all that power over everyone. It is because of them that our whole system of laws has turned into the convoluted polluted mess of incomprehensible legalese spaghetti it is today. Our laws are now too many and too confusing to be of any use to the vast majority of us. We literally need to hire consultants who spend their entire lives buried in law books to have any chance of making our way through the nightmare that is our legal system. This system is not user friendly, and it doesn’t even try to be.

The law has become so far removed from the average citizen that it has become a monster. It consumes us in our ignorance. Because the law and those who “uphold” it are both self-concerned and self-worshiping, there is little doubt that our current system of so-called law and order, our system of justice, is only concerned with it’s own power and continued control over the public and very little else.

We are always right to challenge the law anytime we see it working in contradiction to simple truth and justice, and sadly, it often does just that. The bottom line is that our system of laws is no more real or valid or powerful than we decide to let it be, and although it would claim to have power over us, it does not and cannot, there is no mechanism or proof of any such thing. We can walk away from it any time we like and just blow it off.

We can say, “You are invalid and we are no longer interested in playing your stupid power games that control us and our lives and are patently unfair. Leave us alone, you are nothing. We are better off without you.” We can indeed turn and walk away anytime, and that is the truth, the natural law, our birthright, something that cannot be changed. It is the reality of human law.

It is always up to us what our own laws are, and it is always up to us whether or not to accept them, obey them, abide by them or have anything to do with them. The only power human law has is the power we give it. And the power we give it can also be taken away, by us.

That is the reality of power, and the fact is that reality has been subverted and propagandized by very clever, very devious, very evil people who have sold us the notion that they must have power over us to keep us safe. That is always a lie. No one can keep us safe. If you think that through, you’ll realize the truth of it. Fear is the tool that enslaves us. And nonexistent power is what keeps us beneath those who feed off of us and deprive us of natural justice.

There are no beings on this planet who have any entitlement to control others. In order to do so they must use force, and that is never legitimate power, obviously. Force is not power, it is force. It is the lowest form of human existence on this planet. Any moron can be violent, it takes no thought or intellect or talent. Force is the cheap trick that seeks to cover the truth of its own invalidity with the blood of others. It is never respected, it is never valid, and it is what lies at the core of the laws that we are forced to endure and live by today.

That threat of force is with us at all times, and it is never concerned with justice. It is only concerned with our total compliance. It is instantly exerted at the slightest sign of our disobedience or disagreement. I would say that the legitimacy of our entire system of laws is in serious question, because when laws are just, there is no need to use force against anyone. Why the need for such brutality, if this is such a just system of laws? Why the lust for such extreme punishment, if this system is so fair, reasonable and compassionate?

People everywhere are all too happy to live in a just world, and many of us would really like to try it. It is usually only when people are deprived of justice that they refuse to comply with the laws, and when they do that, they are severely punished. Who does it serve to condition us to see government brutality and murder of citizens for failure to obey the law as a valid thing for governments to do? It doesn’t serve us. It serves them. We are never threatened by the public airing of grievances to determine what is fair and what is right. Only the governments of the world are threatened by the idea of real justice for the people. Are you beginning to see the pattern?

This is the ugly reality, and the truth is that power corrupts. The entire notion of power is something to reconsider, because as far as I can tell, it really has no validity in this world.

Our American freedom is a grand illusion, and the law is only a tool of those who want to control us so badly. It is the highest trick they have, which they alone can use to get us to believe they have such a thing as power over our lives. This is why they do their business in court.

If we rejected this unnatural man-made system of law, what device would exist that they could use to convince us that we are obligated to do things their way? What device could they point to and claim that by virtue of this device they have control and power over all of our lives?

There is no such device. Nothing exists that allows others power and control over us except this one thing: not the law itself, for it has no power or virtue on its own, but only our belief that the law must never be broken. That belief alone is what perpetuates the status quo and allows this broken system to continue with no hope of our cleaning it up and making it honest. We don’t have the power to do that. We only have the power to walk away, but they have ways of dealing with that too. They seem pretty desperate don’t they, if that’s what it takes to keep people under their control. There is nothing about their claims to power and control that is valid enough to make it unnecessary for them to use force against us, to force our compliance with their laws and self-interested demands.

This is also why they control the courts, and why the courts and all who work in them work for those who control us and claim to have power over our lives. The courts do not exist for us and they do not exist to bring justice. They exist as a tool of officialdom and majik to make us believe that when we are deprived of justice in court that they have won fair and square and we are obliged to accept whatever they say. It is a tool that enables them to retain false power and control regardless of truth or justice.

It’s all quite obvious once you see it, it’s right there for all to see. If we can see through the propaganda that makes us all believe that just because it is a law it must be respected and obeyed and upheld, we could set ourselves free from our self-imposed self-limiting erroneous beliefs. That we must obey all laws and rules is nothing but a huge propaganda job that’s done on our minds, not for our benefit, but for theirs. If those who control us were truly interested in justice, it would be they who would be explaining this to you, not me. But they will never be this honest, because the risk is just too high that we would reject their phony power and reject their control and deny their false claims to run the world to their liking. If it was our choice we would choose natural justice to rule ourselves and we would make them go away. And they know that.

And now you know it too. Interesting, yes? Do you look at the law any different now? Geez, I hope so. And I hope it’s gotten you closer to the reality that we’re all consistently denied knowledge of. The power really does belong to us, and we can change it all any time we like. The constitution doesn’t give us the right to live in a just world, natural law gives us that right. That is the real natural law that can never be broken. It belongs to us all, and it always will. If only we knew it, maybe we could finally put an end to the injustice that rules our world and begin the simple work it would take to make our world a better place for everyone.



Angie Riedel

Pro Deo et Constitutione – Libertas aut Mors
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber- http://josephfreedomoranarchy.blogspot.com/