As someone who were born and live in a 3rd world country, it’s quite common to see many people, especially the rich, to ‘cheat’ in the constitution. From the corrupt business owners who exploited their workers, to the regular corrupt police officer that disobey the law they’re actually protecting, or even the more regular, the corrupt politician. We’ve seen them all of how they can twist the law just for them to escape it.
Nature, in its default setting, is cruel. But we as a being, biologically and psychologically, always crave safety. Everyone knows that it is not limited to us who wants peace and joy in this very universe, but also every living being. We, as a species, have always wanted to have a good life, even before we acquired the ability to think.
Thankfully, or not thankfully, evolution leads us to have a better ability to understand the world, and makes us to be able to create such thing as ‘Law’. Law is a system that makes our life, as a society, to become more organized and regulated.
Human in our default form doesn’t really care about moral, other’s welfare, or the impact for the future. Biologically, we only need to live long enough, and pass down our genes, that’s all. But of course, like the popular of what Uncle Ben said ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’. We’re born with a much better ability to think than any other living being. Even though you might not like it because you ‘don’t ask it’ (which we can actually discuss that further), but we’re just in default, have a burden and responsibility to behave better than those who don’t have similar ability.
No matter of how you have to rephrase it. Either ‘we were destined’ or ‘entrusted’ or ‘chosen’ or whatever. Basically: 1) we’re born with the ability to grasp the knowledge of the difference between good and bad better, 2) therefore, we’re obligated to behave good.
Throughout human history, we’ve made the law to become better. To satisfy everyone, to make sure everybody’s welfare, although it still have many flaws. That’s the very reason why many criminals, especially the rich, can escape the law and live a good life as usual.
Even though we, as a whole civilization, always trying to make the law better, the very reason why it has flaws is obviously because we’re also the one who holds the power. In one side, human always trying to make the world better, but there’s also those who only care for themselves.
Unlike morality which defines good and evil, law defines what’s a crime and what’s not. And also, you’re only doing a crime if the judge said so. It is indeed written under the law that ‘stealing is a crime’. But before someone is sentenced, we must goes through court process.
So, whether you’re doing a crime or not is entirely based on the judges, rather than based on the text. It’s not always means that the judges can say whatever they want and everyone must obey them. Judges exist because accusation is never simple and we must look at it from many different perspective.
Let’s say, a man is stealing a phone. Is he violates the law? We must know the very context why he does that. Perhaps he just wants the phone because it has a price, well then he’s done a crime. But there is also many possibilities. Perhaps the phone he is ‘stealing’ is actually his own, which is still being borrowed. But both the lender and the borrower have previously agreed, if the borrower haven’t return it at specific date, then the owner must always able to take it without permission. Is he doing a crime? then no.
But also, because of this, there lies the flaws. This method can be twisted, tricked, and played depending who holds the power. Law will satisfy the majority if only the one who holds the power have interest to do so.
It may be written that ‘stealing is a crime’ or ‘sexual harassment is a crime’, but whether someone is being sentenced or not is entirely depending on the judges. And judges is still human, which means they can still be corrupt.
It is also a shame, that the system we have right now is not always entirely based on whether they’re really violate the law or not, but rather how much money you paid for a lawyer. It’s not always how much evidence you have bring to the court, but rather how much money you’ve paid for the constitution to silence them and wrongly accuse for the wrong person.
I do not have to put a real life examples because we’ve seen many many times, that court is sometimes only a matter of how good the lawyer is. How good the lawyer rhetorically, to twist the fact, to find excuse, to have an argument, and to lick the judges’ ass.
It is indeed written under the law that ‘stealing is a crime’. But do you really think that in reality, stealing is a crime? I’m not talking about the example above, but literally, morally wrong, obviously guilty (even if not proven in court), stealing, always means a crime? Or it’s only a crime if the person in court cannot buy an even expensive lawyer than their opposite? Therefore,
If law can be bought, then being poor is the only crime.