This is http://www.essayz.com/a9005232.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
%LEGAL MORAL RULES LAW ADDICT CONTROL REJECT SYSTEM 900523

     The effect of legal rules and laws,  or of a moral or
ethical  system,  depends greatly upon how the people  who
are  most  concerned with them make use of them.    It  is
misleading  to focus upon legal rules and laws,  or  moral
and  ethical   injunctions,  without  at  the   same  time
giving careful  consideration to the use to which they are
put in real lives and personal relationships.

     Whether  or  not rules promote or undermine  personal
and  communal  integrity depend upon  how  concerned  with
integrity are the people who most intimately relate to the
rules.    Rules  which are used as means  of  manipulative
control  by  addictive  personalities become the  foci  of
disintegrative  processes;   yet it is not  the  rules  of
themselves  which cause the disintegration,  but how  they
are used.

     Addicts who want to use rules as means of control are
likely  to  present  rules  which they  call  good  rules,
pretending that rules in and of themselves can properly be
called good or bad rules.   The more "good" a rule is made
to  appear to be in and of itself;  the more useful it can
be to an addict who wants to use it as a means of control.
Rules which are recognized as "bad"  rules are not  useful
as  means of control;  they cannot be  used very  well  to
manipulate  and  control "good"  people.   Thus  confusion
regarding  whether or not rules in and of  themselves  may
properly  be  regarded as "good",  is one of the tools  of
manipulation used by addicts.

     Addicts tend to encourage people to function in terms
of  rules  and laws;  and tend to discourage  people  from
discovering  ways  to  cope  which  transcend   legalistic
preoccupations  and transcend the rejection of people  who
fail to conform to legalistic expectations.   Good  people
conform.   Bad  people  fail to conform;   and  should  be
rejected. Conformists are acceptable.  Non-conformists are
rejectable.    Such  attitudes  lead  to  alienation   and
disintegration of people and their communities.

     To  promote integrity we need to find ways to  relate
honestly  to rules and regulations which  avoid  rejection
and   alienation    as   much  as  possible.   Rules   and
regulations  should  not be the tools for addicts  to  use
to   try   to achieve personal  satisfaction  through  the
control   of  others.  The administration of law  and  the
processes  of  a judicial  system should not  be  used  to
fulfill  addictive urges.    If the  administration of law
and  the  judicial system are in the  hands  of  addictive
persons,    they   are   bound  to   contribute   to   the
disintegration of their society as  they  seek  to satisfy
addictive urges through attempts to exercise control  over
others.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================