Is it morally wrong to break the law? (1 Viewer)

jennyfromdabloc

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Wtf you just reworded the OP
He did improve the phrasing I must say.

But the same question remains. Everyone seems to accept we can sometimes break the law.

So where does it end. If the law is often illegitimate, can the law be said to be legitimate at all, or is it just something that is forced upon us with threats of violence?
 
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Imo, depends what the law is. Like others have said, if it harms others, then definitely not. But I bet everyone here has broken the law in at least some way, like burning CDs or DVDs, etc. But obviously then comes the problem of what actually constitutes harm, i.e. by burning CDs and DVDs, are we harming others by putting them out of a job? The 'big ones' are obvious in the amount of harm they can do, rape, murder, assault, etc., but I think we rarely consider the harm that these seemingly victimless crimes can do. I guess it all depends on your individual conscience in the end.
 

loquasagacious

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Does peaceful non-compliance count as 'breaking' the law though?
Yes it pretty much does.

After all I could peacefully non-comply with all laws restricting victimless crimes (drugs, other 'moral' laws, etc). And could also peacefully non-comply with all intellectual property laws.
 

Iron

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Yes it pretty much does.

After all I could peacefully non-comply with all laws restricting victimless crimes (drugs, other 'moral' laws, etc). And could also peacefully non-comply with all intellectual property laws.
Still sounds like active non-compliance. I think there's a dfference between accepting laws that prohibit certain activities and peacefully rejecting laws that mandate certain activities
 

loquasagacious

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Still sounds like active non-compliance. I think there's a dfference between accepting laws that prohibit certain activities and peacefully rejecting laws that mandate certain activities
Provide an example.
 

Iron

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For instance, I might comply with a law that censors pornography etc even if i was addicted to pornography and was deeply annoyed by the ban. But if the government commanded me to report for active duty in some immoral war against the jews, then I could simply refuse to comply and suffer the prohibiting consequences (prison or death)
 

Serius

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No not necessarily, but i guess it can be wrong in some [most?] circumstances.

Theres one law that trumps all, and thats the law of survival. IMO you can do whatever you want if you legitimately beleived you needed to do that to survive, no matter what laws society says you have broken, no matter how immoral those actions are.
 
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No not necessarily, but i guess it can be wrong in some [most?] circumstances.

Theres one law that trumps all, and thats the law of survival. IMO you can do whatever you want if you legitimately beleived you needed to do that to survive, no matter what laws society says you have broken, no matter how immoral those actions are.
I'll roll with that, and add also helping someone else to survive (eg stealing medicine to make them better if cant afford, provided legal means dont work out first) plenty of other circumstances but yeh.
 
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No not necessarily, but i guess it can be wrong in some [most?] circumstances.

Theres one law that trumps all, and thats the law of survival. IMO you can do whatever you want if you legitimately beleived you needed to do that to survive, no matter what laws society says you have broken, no matter how immoral those actions are.
That's an interesting point, and obviously upheld by the law to some extent, i.e. if you kill someone in self-defence. But I don't think it should legitimise EVERYTHING, regardless of immorality, i.e. committing mass murder. The line has to be drawn somewhere, obv the problem is where we draw it.
 

hectic_lowie

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you can do whatever you want to survive as long as it doesnt stop anyone else from surviving

if eveyone did this we would all be m8s ok
 

zstar

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What if conscription was reintroduced? People would be forced to go to war, no? They'd be force to kill, no?

Now what if you refused to be conscripted? Refused to follow a law which conflicted with your own moral values?

There are instances in where people broke the law, and refused to be conscripted (i.e. conscientious objectors); one such example being William white who refused to fight in the Vietnam war.
What are you some sort of peacenik?
 

pman

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If the law says tha someone must killed on sight but you don't approve of killing, then no, was it morally wrong to be a jew in nazi germany, no... was it morraly wrong to be disabled (and they got gased as well), no.....
 

Serius

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That's an interesting point, and obviously upheld by the law to some extent, i.e. if you kill someone in self-defence. But I don't think it should legitimise EVERYTHING, regardless of immorality, i.e. committing mass murder. The line has to be drawn somewhere, obv the problem is where we draw it.
No, there is no lines, you do what you need to do to survive. If someone held a gun to my head, and said i had to press a button that would activate bombs in a school, i would do it because i am a coward and i dont want to die. Even if there was something i wouldnt do, i could hardly judge someone else for doing it if it was a do or die situation.

Thats where the justice system fails imo, because it cant prevent this. What are they going to do? execute me for killing school kids? oh well, i would have died anyway, at least i got a few more years to live.

nothing really trumps the law of survival, maybe survival of your kids, but again thats a personal matter. Whilst i wouldnt do it, i couldnt condemn someone that chose not to sacrifice themselves to save their kid, and instead let their kid die.

In these situations it doesnt really matter what the law says or does after the fact, because the most precious thing we have is our lives so it makes sense to take all steps necessary to protect it, even if Canberra says otherwise.

Theres a few other laws that imo are wrong, and it is not morally wrong to break. Taking drugs for instance is a personal choice that only affects you, why should the government care what you do with your own body?
 
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Morals can be considered one's personal beliefs about what is right and wrong, whether or not it complies with wider society. So in any scenario it depends.

It definitely isn't necessary that one violates their own moral code by breaking the law e.g. taking illegal drugs, non violent protests like Gandhi and Mandela. I think often history tells us the opposite, e.g. NOT helping people evade concentration camps when the Holocaust was legally accepted would be morally wrong, from our current context looking back at history.

In my mind I think in everyone of those scenarios it would be plausible to break the law in order to satisfy the higher moral purpose of doing the most right thing based on our own moral codes. But of course, as I said before morals are much more personal than the law as a whole so it would vary from person to person.
 

Iron

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Theres a few other laws that imo are wrong, and it is not morally wrong to break. Taking drugs for instance is a personal choice that only affects you, why should the government care what you do with your own body?
obv there are broader impacts on the community, from the safety and general well-being of surrounding individuals, to the stress placed on the public health system
 

John McCain

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obv there are broader impacts on the community, from the safety and general well-being of surrounding individuals, to the stress placed on the public health system
Is it immoral to drink a beer?
 

Iron

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public intoxication is often legislated against. But if a person is drinking themselves to death with no regard of how such substance abuse impacts their friends, family, profession, neighbourhood, health system etc, then it's hardly a moral pursuit.
Love thy neighbour guy
 

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