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What is the Law?
townhall.com ^ | 1/30/2023 | Allen West

Posted on 01/30/2023 7:19:58 AM PST by rktman

Right now, America is facing a level of lawlessness that is highly disconcerting. Everywhere we turn, we see the dismissal of what is supposed to be the law. Whether it is at the border, on our streets, in our courts, in our schools, or even in our homes, there is a dedicated, purposeful, and intentional desire to undermine the rule of law. Therefore, as we are in dire need of a discussion and understanding of the topic, it is pertinent to ask: what is the law?

I recommend that we look to a French economist named Frederick Bastiat, who wrote an essay, first published in 1850, called "The Law." His essay is as relevant and pertinent as ever to the question posed in this missive.

Bastiat writes, "...it is because personality [individual life], liberty, and property exist beforehand, that men make laws. What, then, is law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. Nature, rather God, has bestowed upon every one of us the right to defend his person, his liberty, and his property, since these are the three constituent or preserving elements of life . . . The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense; it is the substitution of collective for individual forces, for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act, of doing what they have a right to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, and to maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign over all."

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: anarchotyranny; dystopia; lawless; lawlessness
Thanks Col. West. Sadly, the lawless bunch continue to do as they please.
1 posted on 01/30/2023 7:19:58 AM PST by rktman
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To: rktman

And West is correct… per usual


2 posted on 01/30/2023 7:21:31 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: rktman

When I was young a person of authority told me …. We make it up as we go and it is what we say it is till someone of greater authority says it is something different.


3 posted on 01/30/2023 7:25:14 AM PST by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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To: rktman

At the street level, so to speak, there are people who don’t respect the law. And that is to be expected. There are always common criminals.

Today, the judges and the politicians don’t respect the law. That’s somewhat new. They use the law as a weapon to get people they don’t like, and they ignore the law whenever they need to protect the people they do like. The whole world is a rigged game now.


4 posted on 01/30/2023 7:34:47 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it’s the other way”)
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To: rktman

“Whether it is at the border, on our streets, in our courts, in our schools, or even in our homes, there is a dedicated, purposeful, and intentional desire to undermine the rule of law.”

Add our elections to that list.


5 posted on 01/30/2023 7:35:59 AM PST by enumerated ( )
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To: rktman

As in physics, there is inertia in public affairs which results in most people thinking things are better than they really are. When enough realize the true situation they will demand action but it will be more costly, take longer, and more damage will have been done in the interim.


6 posted on 01/30/2023 7:36:03 AM PST by bigbob
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To: ClearCase_guy

Hard for some law abiding citizens to abide the “law” since it’d so abused by those in power these days.


7 posted on 01/30/2023 7:39:33 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: rktman; All

“What is the Law?”

“Are we Men?”

What movie ?????


8 posted on 01/30/2023 7:47:35 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: rktman

“What is the Law?”

“Two Legs Good! Four Legs Bad!”


9 posted on 01/30/2023 8:00:09 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All he had was a handgun. Why did you think that was a threat?" --Rittenhouse Prosecutor)
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To: rktman

As I longer have a Rule of Law.

Currently we have a Rule of Farce, as clowns are in charge.

If history is any guide, it will soon be replaced with a Rule of Force.


10 posted on 01/30/2023 8:03:03 AM PST by Natty Bumppo@frontier.net (We are the dangerous ones, who stand between all we love and a more dangerous world.)
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To: rktman

Protection of life and property is the byproduct of “The Law,” but not its mechanism.

The mechanism of “The Law” is a set of conceptual principles agreed upon by nomadic tribesmen, primarily aimed at restraining naturalistic behaviors so that ever larger groups of tribes might coalesce and live together in relative individual safety without their natural and tribal/traditional tendencies coming to the fore than they all murder each other over perceived minor offenses or religious or cultural differences.


11 posted on 01/30/2023 8:16:59 AM PST by Paal Gulli
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To: Paal Gulli

Somebody wants your stuff.


12 posted on 01/30/2023 8:18:33 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: Taxman

Ping


13 posted on 01/30/2023 8:53:33 AM PST by Taxman (SAVE AMERICA! VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2023 AND 2024!)
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To: rktman

When it come to demonraats, and the law, I think of this line from an old song

Good is what I do to others.
Bad is what they do to me.
~ Mark Heard


14 posted on 01/30/2023 9:19:32 AM PST by Fai Mao (Stop feeding the beast, and steal its food!)
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To: rktman
Bastiat writes, "What, then, is law? ... it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense." "The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense;"

That's pretty circular.

15 posted on 01/30/2023 10:15:49 AM PST by KrisKrinkle (c)
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