Are you law-abiding or compliant?? The difference is significant.
...Laws are made now chiefly by regulatory agencies that combine in
themselves all three powers of government. The popular or elected
branches may overturn these regulations only when they unite to do so,
and this is increasingly rare. So every institution in society is in
principle subject to comprehensive regulation. Every employer, every
school, many clubs, and family life itself are now the subject of rules
too complex for the lay person to grasp. These rules are not always
enforced, nor can they be, but Americans sense that they better be
looking over their shoulders, careful of what they say.
This has changed the way we live. Compliance increasingly replaces
law-abidingness as the public goal. Laws, the Founders held, [following Aquinas] must be
simple, few, and constant. Then we may all know what they are, live
under them, and help to enforce them. This makes us equal, ruler and
ruled. It means that we do not quail before the forces of the law. We
are the forces of the law.
Compliance, by contrast, means adapting
constantly to changing and complex instructions from central
authorities, and it means the employment of specialists to interpret the
regulations and make sure others conform.
...
That 'simple, few, constant' thing was also a feature of the 10 Commandments, eh?
Ever wonder why what used to be the "personnel" department is now "human resources"? And why an operation which was historically responsible only for payroll and employment records now has umpty-dozen people who track colors, attractions, sexualisms, and a couple of dozen local, State, and Federal reports? Or why said department has a law firm on speed-dial?
Ever wonder why US manufacturing firms are moving overseas as fast as they can? No, it is NOT THE COST OF LABOR!!! It is the cost of "compliance", not only for fripperies such as "human resources," but also for Big Green-Weenerie, taxes, OSHA...
Think Paul Ryan will have the guts to remedy this crap in the next 4 years?
Not Compliant.
ReplyDeleteNot Law abiding either.
Yet I'm off their radar though.... for the moment.
Ever wonder what they would do if we simply ignored their laws en mass?
The reason it works is we are so compliant and spineless to the administrative state.
By the way, Merry Christmas! May the peace of Christ be with you and your family!
-Mississippi