The Law - by Frederic Bastiat

No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree, but the safest way to make them respected is to make them respectable.

One of the book’s most valid yet controversial points is: the law is perverted because it’s made and sanctioned by humans, the very same entity that its meant to target. So, it’s easy for the law to go from a tool to keep checks on injustice to a tool that enables it.

The book argues that a legislator has similar powers than those of a king. It can force religion, social systems, cultural shifts, patterns of behavior, both to the masses and to the individual. Here’s where the contradictions and perversions of the law (and lawmakers) exist. In essence, it shares the ruling power of a monarch, including the tyranny.

In my opinion, not all individuals are experienced enough to make and sanction laws upon individuals and groups. A level of study and awareness of group dynamics, history, and logic are required for writing them, at the very least. Also, obviously and ideally, to enact them.

Life in society is part of a human’s biological imperative. It’s hard to see an individual’s absolute freedom of personality, liberty and property not coming into clash with another’s, at some point. So, the law is necessary. As the book states with much emphasis, it should exist and be used as the collective organization of the individual right to defense.