What if laws aren't fair?

[T3l Ca7]

I rely on my own moral compass to tell me what is right and what is wrong.

But you run the risk of breaking the law and get punished for it.

[Sarien]

I run the risk of getting cancer when I smoke. I run the risk of getting in a car accident and dying when I drive. I run the risk of having my heart broken because I'm in love. Life is always some sort of risk or another. I never said a person should be stupid and obvious if they are going to break a law, me included. But the last thing I'm worried about is the police and going to jail over doing something I legitimately believe I am right in doing.

[Pressure Drop]

not all laws are there for fairness and there have been laws which are very oppresive.

Also everyones ideas of fairness is different, there are those that believe that all information and research should be shared freely for the greater good of mankind. There are those that believe that copyrights should be stricter so that it is easier for people to claim ownership of concepts and research in the name of profit on the baisis that if there was no money to be made the people/companies wouldn't have done the work/investment.

Its said all to much and i'm going to devalue it even more.
As in most cases there is no black and white , just shades of gray/grey

can never remember how to spell grey/gray ??

[Torn Wing]

The basic underlying reason for setting laws are to provide certainty not fairness.

Not quite.

Laws have been created by man, to keep human nature, or instinct if you will, under control. There are two minds in one person, a logical mind, and an instinctual mind, the first of the two is considered to be superior, seeing as it can "reason" and interpret these laws, where as the instinctual is just to see that the basic needs of a man are met, such as: hunger, fight or flight, and so on. The Logical mind would like to see the instinctual mind die out, fade away, and it has to an extent, but it just takes an incident like war to bring it back to the surface. So what may not seem fair to you is just infact your selfish nature. You only think it's unfair because it restricts you from what may be pleasurable and such.

[Sarien]

It is more certainty than overriding instincts.

If it were simply instincts, laws woul be made dictating what you can eat, and when, whether or not you can cheat on your girlfriend/wife, and what time you're supposed to go to bed.

The reason it applies to certainty is just follow along with me.
Me, You, and Telcat are Cavemen living in a cave (bear with me.)
While we're sleeping in our corners of the cave we get sick of one of the other two invariably in the dark stumbling around to go to the bathroom, and they take a whizz on us. We all agree this is a bad thing so we make an agreement that whenever anybody has to take a pee they go to the one section of the cave or outside. Cool.. an agreement. Later on down the road more people, Da1, DoTheFandango, etc, everbody else that's posted in this thread move in. Well, we start trying to explain about the pee corner, and some of them get it, some of them don't, and after a few times of getting whizzed on by the incompetents, we decide that we need somebody to watch for this, make sure people use the corner like we've agreed.

Not only do we have a law now, we have police. You see? Laws are not mystical magical sacrosanct things. They are not some sort of deep philosophical and psychological scripture. They're just things that (for the most part) people agree on, and provide the certainty and assurance that everybody will be held to behave that way.

The Logical mind would like to see the instinctual mind die out, fade away,

Mine doesn't. I'm glad to have my instincts, and I trust them. They aren't infallible but nevertheless I wouldn't want to be without even the worst ones.

And as for not thinking a law is fair or just is just part of a person's selfish nature? Are you trying to say that there have never been any unjust laws? Banning Gay Marriage? Segregation? Slavery?
Believing those to be unfair and wrong and hampering freedom is selfish?

[Torn Wing]

And as for not thinking a law is fair or just is just part of a person's selfish nature? Are you trying to say that there have never been any unjust laws? Banning Gay Marriage? Segregation? Slavery?
Believing those to be unfair and wrong and hampering freedom is selfish?

No that was a response to Telcat's view on the Copyright law.

[Ilya]

http://www.lawforkids.org/toons/view_toon.cfm?id=5

[Nickname]

It's IlyaZ...BACK IN BLACK