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Volume 38, Issue 7
December 12, 2000

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Parking illegally forfeits rights

GUEST COLUMNIST
MESA LEGEND
Submitted December 12, 2000

Since you have willingly chosen to park illegally, I can only assume that you believe yourself to be above the normative codes (i.e., Law, Morality, etc.) that regulate society.

Because I believe you to be a rational agent, I must also assume that you are ignorant of the likely consequences of such a belief, and therefore, I feel it is my obligation to point out some of the consequences so that you may re-evaluate your errant view.

Firstly there is the matter of the parking violation fine. Certainly, the amount of money required by the fine is limited, and there is a very good chance that you will not be ticketed at all.

However, it is also certainly irrational to waste one’s finite resources! If you dropped $5, would you just walk away and leave it where it lay?

Second, and more importantly, if you feel no compunction to submit to the accepted normative codes of your society you forfeit all your rights in the society.

If you believe yourself to be free from the obligations imposed by our shared moral and legal codes you have no reason to think others should be likewise bound toward you. Hence, the next time someone does some harm to you, you have no reason to complain! The villain can simply reply that they are acting as you yourself act; with a disregard for the rules of social interaction.

You will have no reason to hold them accountable, for if different rules apply to each individual, then there are really no rules at all!

The sort of anarchy that this view suggests inevitably leads to what Thomas Hobbes called a "state of nature" in which human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

But, perhaps you desire such a state of anarchy? Perhaps you believe that the rules of society are already arbitrary and unfair regarding your interest, and therefore, anarchy would be preferred to the unjust state that currently exists.

After all, at least you would be freed from the tyranny of an unjust system.

But note that, here again, it would not be in your own best interest to desire such a state of affairs. Though you would be free of all obligations in such a state, you would be without any rights.

We would be once again reduced to a state of nature. Do you desire others to speak the truth? You must abandon such a hope too.

These agreements only hold in so far as we are willing to limit our own absolute liberty toward others. But when we voluntarily yield these liberties, when we choose to limit our own freedom toward others so that we may purchase a more peaceful existence, we have created a moral code.

Certainly no code of moral or civil law is perfect. Indeed, it may be necessary to periodically revisit and revise these systems so that they may adapt to our changing needs.

Barry Vaughan is a philosophy instructor at MCC.

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