In lieu of a suitable subject for today, here’s something to think about:
“If you reason instead of repeating what is taught you; if you analyze the law and strip off those cloudy fictions with which it has been draped in order to conceal its real origin, which is the right of the stronger, and its substance, which has ever been the consecration of all the tyrannies handed down to mankind through its long and bloody history; when you have comprehended this, your contempt for the law will be profound indeed. You will understand that to remain the servant of the written law is to place yourself every day in opposition to the law of conscience, and to make a bargain on the wrong side; and, since this struggle cannot go on forever, you will either silence your conscience and become a scoundrel, or you will break with tradition, and you will work with us for the utter destruction of all this injustice, economic, social and political.” – Peter Kropotkin, An Appeal to the Young (1880)
A good personal set of guidelines to live by. Well, I think so, at least.
We all live by our own sets of rules and morals. We build this arrangement of values up through life. They are based on our experiences and to some extent what’s preached to us by ‘the laws’. It’s what forms our conscience and sense of fairplay. Personally, I consider myself a free thinker. After all, some of the laws foisted upon us are a bit crappy and out of touch. So, I make judgements on whether to bend certain rules from time to time. Because I have my own.
I’m glad you went back and put this in instead. Thanks.