Activism Change

::: Law & Authority (2/2) :::

Question:

Law & Authority (2/2) by Peter Kropotkin: | We have seen how law originated in established usage and | custom, and how from the beginning it has represented a | skillful mixture of social habits, necessary to the | preservation of the human race, with other customs imposed | by those who used popular superstition as well as the right | of the strongest for their own advantage. This double | character of law has determined its own later development | during the growth of political organization. While in the | course of ages the nucleus of social custom inscribed in | law has been subjected to but slight and gradual | modifications, the other portion has been largely developed | in directions indicated by the interests of the dominant | classes, and to the injury of the classes they oppress. | … Kropotkin would seem to be distinguishing here between the "proper law" mikel evins just referred to — Kropotkin calls them "social habits" and what I think he would describe as improper law.  However, there is another difficulty, which is that different communities, as well as different classes, have different customs and values.  Therefore, in attempting to expunge improper laws and retain the proper ones, it is likely that conflict — probably, very serious conflict — will arise as to which laws are proper and which aren’t. This conflict will be exacerbated and exploited by the usual class conflicts, assuming that a signicant class structure exists.  How can the possibility of this conflict, which would probably be fatal for any movement towards anarchy / freedom, be reduced?  It appears that class and authoritarian cultural practices must be subverted _along_ with abolition of "improper law". — { http://www.etaoin.com | latest new material 2/4/00 }

Response:

 To me there’s a few things people can do to each other that really piss people off,sometimes enough to even kill. 1 murder 2 rape and pedophilia 3 assault and battery/stalking/intimidation/ Harassment 4 stealing 5 Vandalism 6 Slander/insult/ verbal degradation 7 deliberate misleading and withholding of information/cons. 8 stealing mates. If people respected each other and life itself enough not to do those 8 things to others maybe the world could function better socially…We all know these things are anti-social and piss off the recipient.Problem is some people do it ,enjoy it,profit from it and get off on it …then complain when someone does it back in revenge.Hypocrites. Ever notice when rival warring  countries speak of enemy populations, they paint their rival to their respective publics as being their ‘lessers’..They speak of rights declaring it for themselves to remove the ‘threat’ of those—*trying to take our rights away.The public is well trained to see rapists perverts crooks and conmen in every person they are taught culturally to perceive as’weak’,different,stereotyped ,profiled etc. The choice of type of ‘profile’ that makes a targets of hate is directly related to the power structure trying to keep itself in the position of ‘control on a  public/private sector psychosocial level.And it interacts with the deep psychology of individuals in the public.Since the "top" is making up the customs in a culture .Notice how it filters down to the frustrated masses in the form of stereotypes advice ,"traditions"and custom.Through the dissemination of images and ideas  "sold" and propagandized for public consumption…they portray each other  as those evil—* trying to take our sacred human rights and freedom away and rape our women, steal our wealth, and subjugate us to those—-barbaric—-*anti- laws. The most hilarious thing about this behavior trait in pecking orders and perhaps the most sad, is both warring countries (or groups or individuals even)say the same shit about each other  in their faces or behind thier backs..and both countries(races) are to scared of what  the other nation(race politic or religion) might be like as human beings or accuse them of in the eyes of others or’peers’. Look at Mc Cain VS Bush…Both act like children bullies duking it out  in a show of lies for winning dominance of public opinion in exchange for power over each of our lives.Do you think you could stand living with either of those blowhard yahoos,would you trust Clinton at home with your teen daughter?.Pathetic on all sides.. We joke about the shame of dishonest politicians yet we never fail to get riveted to some silly sex scandal and ignore the important forgotten promises we elected the idiot for to begin with that could help our lives personally..So by proxy isn’t it the public letting them get away with being dishonest and two-faced on real issues by being riveted to the personal sex life or fetish of an already dishonest politician?? Stupid isn’t it? So are we gonna elect another same as usual candidate with’charisma and nothing else offering up the most enticing blue plate sale of lies we can delude ourselves with? I know once you can insult someone with impunity and lie about them or to them when they have done nothing hurtful to you deliberately, or you know noting about them then the process of dehumanizing them has already chipped away a part of your own integrity, dignity and perspective .And it has made a wound in the other person and the motive to find and avenge the source of the’wound’.Then it escalates into that son of a bitch….slander than fights then death if it goes that far. The American public and I suspect other countries of it as well,has over time deliberately misled and hurt the psyche’s of their own populace severely..The power brokers have made a culture that makes them sick and dependant on fantasy and products .To the point they can’t tell an ideology from what is important  to live life well,and to accept 40 hour workweeks at the cost of sane children and give lipservice  to the contrary…They let politicians welch on countless promises and then re-elect them! The public sees to it wages are  kept  low just enough to tread water  financially for a large portion of people  that do the most unpleasant jobs,janitors,fast food,or streetcleaning.  They give the ‘elite’s power over their lives and never ask why they did it they do it by rote by public opinion polls…..They’d rather whine and pray about their situation than face the dreaded uncertainty of change.This behavior is mirrored in individual lives as well as cultures… So predictably when the rich or powerful ‘elates go and  abuse the power the people gave to them they limply protest let out a yelp…But they will not give up this illusion of powerful-powerlessness and give up trusting in this ’system’ that holds them in controlled  limits… They will not take this culture and rebuild it in a humane fashion.They wait for a war to do it..They act like well trained servants and consumers..The powerstructure  has kept small Business financially strapped just enough to not be able to pay more to their employees or give them HealthCare.You see this in the explosion of temps ,consultants and assignment jobs. And  chronic stress has it’s effects on the population  too.Facing day after day the busy harried competition on so many levels in life.Nice beautiful 200,000 houses that conceal lonely self-absorbed people trapped in abusive or alienated relationships… Going to church every Sunday….living lies in their hearts because reality hurts worse than a dream to them because that is how they’ve been taught to perceive since childhood with their own disgruntled parents.. The symptoms exist..parents alienated from kids,heart problems ,Columbine,people seeking solace from social pressures in food,drugs ,sex,sadism,masochism,cults,..etc..even  at the cost of their own well being and health… this game of power has warped so much in people’s minds to keep them as consumers it’s just tragic . And power is such an addictive poison so subtle and pervasive  a chameleon in how it manifests  in so many emotionally starved confused people.Everyone is  looking for the source of  deep buried unrecognized wounds  they forgot so they attack anything that might look like a source of injustice a source of their confusion,because they won’t let themselves see it laughing at them in front of their face offering them another lie to distract from the truth.The American citizen is just like a horribly abused child…broken used,defiled, hurt,mislead, and beaten into subjugation to all sorts of cruelties and soul shattering things but through it all he is still loyal to his own horrible machiavellian  cruel parents. I’m embarrassed at humanity’s horrible cruelty to itself.

Response:

Law & Authority (2/2) by Peter Kropotkin III We have seen how law originated in established usage and custom, and how from the beginning it has represented a skillful mixture of social habits, necessary to the preservation of the human race, with other customs imposed by those who used popular superstition as well as the right of the strongest for their own advantage. This double character of law has determined its own later development during the growth of political organization. While in the course of ages the nucleus of social custom inscribed in law has been subjected to but slight and gradual modifications, the other portion has been largely developed in directions indicated by the interests of the dominant classes, and to the injury of the classes they oppress. From time to time these dominant classes have allowed a law to be extorted from them which presented, or appeared to present, some guarantee for the disinherited. But then such laws have but repealed a previous law, made for the advantage of the ruling caste. "The best laws," says Buckle, "were those which repealed the preceding ones." But what terrible efforts have been needed, what rivers of blood have been spilt, every time there has been a question of the repeal of one of these fundamental enactments serving to hold the people in fetters. Before she could abolish the last vestiges of serfdom and feudal rights, and break up the power of the royal court, France was forced to pass through four years of revolution and twenty years of war. Decades of conflict are needful to repeal the least of the iniquitous laws, bequeathed us by the past, and even then they scarcely disappear except in periods of revolution. The history of the genesis of capital has already been told by socialists many times. They have described how it was born of war and pillage, of slavery and serfdom, of modern fraud and exploitation. They have shown how it is nourished by the blood of the worker, and how little by little it has conquered the whole world. The same story, concerning the genesis and development of law has yet to be told. As usual, the popular intelligence has stolen a march upon men of books. It has already put together the philosophy of this history, and is busy laying down its essential landmarks. Law, in its quality of guarantee of the results of pillage, slavery, and exploitation, has followed the same phases of development as capital. Twin brother and sister, they have advanced hand in hand, sustaining one another with the suffering of mankind. In every country in Europe their history is approximately the same. It has differed only in detail; the main facts are alike; and to glance at the development of law in France or Germany is to know its essential traits and its phases of development in most of the European nations. In the first instance, law was a national pact or contract. It is true that this contract was not always freely accepted. Even in the early days the rich and strong were imposing their will upon the rest. But at all events they encountered an obstacle to their encroachments in the mass of the people, who often made them feel their power in return. But as the church on one side and the nobles on the other succeeded in enthralling the people, the right of law-making escaped from the hands of the nation and passed into those of the privileged orders. Fortified by the wealth accumulating in her coffers, the church extended her authority. She tampered more and more with private life, and under pretext of saving souls, seized upon the labor of her serfs, she gathered taxes from every class, she increased her jurisdiction, she multiplied penalties, and enriched herself in proportion to the number of offenses committed, for the produce of every fine poured into her coffers. Laws had no longer any connection with the interest of the nation. "They might have been supposed to emanate rather from a council of religious fanatics than from legislators," observes an historian of French Law. At the same time, as the baron likewise extended his authority over laborers in the fields and artisans in the towns, he, too, became legislator and judge. The few relics of national law dating from the tenth century are merely agreements regulating service, statute-labor, and tribute due from serfs and vassals to their lord. The legislators of that period were a handful of brigands organized for the plunder of a people daily becoming more peaceful as they applied themselves to agricultural pursuits. These robbers exploited the feelings for justice inherent in the people, they posed as the administrators of that justice, made a source of revenue for themselves out of its fundamental principles and concocted laws to maintain their own domination. Later on, these laws collected and classified by jurists formed the foundation of our modern codes. And are we to talk about respecting these codes, the legacy of baron and priest? The first revolution, the revolt of the townships, was successful in abolishing only a portion of these laws; the charters of enfranchised towns are, for the most part, a mere compromise between baronial and episcopal legislation, and the new relations created within the free borough itself. Yet what a difference between these laws and the laws we have now! The town did not take upon itself to imprison and execute citizens for reasons of State; it was content to expel anyone who plotted with the enemies of the city, and to raze his house to the ground. It confined itself to imposing fines for so-called "crimes and misdemeanors" and in the townships of the twelfth century may even be discerned the just principle today forgotten which holds the whole community responsible for the misdoing of each of its members. The societies of that time looked upon crime as an accident or misfortune; a conception common among the Russian peasantry at this moment. Therefore they did not admit of the principle of personal vengeance as preached by the Bible, but considered that the blame for each misdeed reverted to the whole society. It needed all the influence of the Byzantine church, which imported into the West the refined cruelties of Eastern despotism, to introduce into the manners of Gauls and Germans the penalty of death, and the horrible tortures afterwards inflicted on those regarded as criminals. Just in the same way, it needed all the influence of the Roman code, the product of the corruption of imperial Rome, to introduce the notions as to absolute property in land, which have overthrown the communistic customs of primitive people. As we know, the free townships were not able to hold their own. Torn by internal dissensions between rich and poor, burgher and serf, they fell an easy prey to royalty. And as royalty acquired fresh strength, the right of legislation passed more and more into the hands of a clique of courtiers. Appeal to the nation was made only to sanction the taxes demanded by the king. Parliament summoned at intervals of two centuries, according to the good pleasure or caprice of the court, "Councils Extraordinary," assemblies of notables, ministers, scarce heeding the "grievances of the king’s subjects" — these are the legislators of France. Later still, when all power is concentrated in a single man, who can say "I am the State," edicts are concocted in the "secret counsels of the prince," according to the whim of a minister, or of an imbecile king; and subjects must obey on pain of death. All judicial guarantees are abolished; the nation is the serf of royalty, and of a handful of courtiers. And at this period the most horrible penalties startle our gaze — the wheel, the stake, flaying alive, tortures of every description, invented by the sick fancy of monks and madmen, seeking delight in the sufferings of executed criminals. The great Revolution began the demolition of this framework of law, bequeathed to us by feudalism and royalty. But after having demolished some portions of the ancient edifice, the Revolution delivered over the power of law-making to the bourgeoisie, who, in their turn, began to raise a fresh framework of laws intended to maintain and perpetuate middle-class domination among the masses. Their parliament makes laws right and left, and mountains of law accumulate with frightful rapidity. But what are all these laws at bottom? The major portion have but one object — to protect private property, i.e., wealth acquired by the exploitation of man by man. Their aim is to open out to capital fresh fields for exploitation, and to sanction the new forms which that exploitation continually assumes, as capital swallows up another branch of human activity, railways, telegraphs, electric light, chemical industries, the expression of man’s thought in literature and science, etc. The object of the rest of these laws is fundamentally the same. They exist to keep up the machinery of government which serves to secure to capital the exploitation and monopoly of the wealth produced. Magistrature, police, army, public instruction, finance, all serve one God — capital; all have but one object — to facilitate the exploitation of the worker by the capitalist. Analyze all the laws passed and you will find nothing but this. The protection of the person, which is put forward as the true mission of law, occupies an imperceptible space among them, for, in existing society, assaults upon the person directly dictated by hatred and brutality tend to disappear. Nowadays, if anyone is murdered, it is generally for the sake of robbing him; rarely because of personal vengeance. But if this class of crimes and misdemeanors is continually diminishing, we certainly do not owe the change to legislation. It is due to the growth of humanitarianism in our societies, to our increasingly social habits rather than to the prescriptions of … read more »

Response:

Filed under: Human Rights

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