To live outside the law you must be honest. — Bob Dylan
I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law. — Woody Guthrie
Send lawyers, guns and money, the shit has hit the fan. — Warren Zevon
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We hear an awful lot of the phrase “law abiding people” these days, usually from the mouths of the NRA and kindred gun advocates. This and “second amendment rights” are their big buzzwords. Never mind that these are often right wing “anti-government” folks who nonetheless regard the second amendment as sacred because they think it supports their beliefs. Guns are a religion, it seems, with every bit as much attendant self-righteousness as any other. As if legal compliance indicates less likelihood of someone going off on a shooting spree, as if outside-the-law people are by default crazy, stupid and irresponsible.
I’ve never known many gun people. But one, who identified himself as a hunter who always ate what he killed, came by with a couple of dead squirrels one night. No deer that day. We had to eat them with him lest his pride be injured (another issue there, but...), and the tree rodents were pretty unpleasant eating. There are times when I could make a pretty good case for being vegetarian. Billy the hunter did not have a license, and I’ve no idea where or how he got his weapons. But despite his questionable taste in food, he was an honest man and as good as his word.
Is it true that living outside the law requires honesty? I’d say yes, but that means really living outside the law, not straying from it occasionally for convenience. And is it true therefore, that a law-abiding person does not need to be honest? Is it not a fact that legal processes and protection can and often do cover many large and small-scale sins, crimes, iniquities? It would seem so. In fact, the more I hear the phrase “law-abiding so-and-so” trumpeted, the less inclined I am to trust or believe whoever is tooting the horn.
Is there, for instance, any honest advertising? I’d say not much. But pretty much anything goes when one is chasing profit, and fudging a detail, or a little exaggeration here or there is just poetic license, right?
One area where utter compliance with the law is necessary, is operation of a motor vehicle. Is mandatory insurance a scam, a ripoff, a clear collusion of industry and politicians? Of course it is. Unless you can manage with public transportation, the DMV and more to the point the CHP, have you by the throat. What are licensing and insurance fees but payoffs in a protection racket? A crime when anyone else does it. But I make my payoffs, in the same spirit that I’d pay off Al Capone or my uncle Frank or the Corleones. CHP or Mafia? They’re all packing heat, but the Mafia’s reputation for restraint in the matter of gunplay is far better than that of the police.
We do the best we can with what we’ve got.
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