ISSUE NO.180【六人行】by CrazyJoO

crazyjooUID: 2805124

TOPIC: ISSUE180 - "Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system because moral behavior cannot be legislated."

I fundamentally agree with the speaker's claim. Such problems which cannot be judged by law appear to reflect the flaws and even ineptitude of law. However, in my view, the "discrepancy" between law and morality as well as morality and law are indisputable to a harmonious society.

Admittedly, laws serve to judge the entire society. Laws differentiate common people from criminals and protect us from being hurt by people with evil motivation. Laws maintain the stability of the society by punishing the evil behaviors. It is easy to imagine how chaotic the society will be without laws. Tricky businessmen cheat money out of consumers without worrying about the punishment. Marauders rob money from common people without paying attention to the police--the safeguard of laws. In other words, law is the very foundation upon which our society advances. Without government of laws, our human beings will regress back into animal form.

In fact, law is the bottom line of morality. Therefore law cannot cover every field of our daily lives and hence cannot replace moral admonition. The primary goal of laws is to prevent people from committing crime and the principle of morality is to encourage people to do good things. For that matter, morality is more likely to create a more harmonious society than law. It is a truth. To some extent, it is necessary or even desirable for morality to exceed laws.

However, is the gap between morality and law really desirable? It is not uncommon to see undesirable things which are resulted from the gap between morality and laws. For example, people could only scold a man who abandons his old parents. They have not rights to sue him and send him to jails since his behaviors do not violate the laws. Parents cannot stand on their sons abuse and kill their son. Public also cannot ask judger to set them free given the fact that killing people apparently deviate from laws. It is true that such gap appears to be unpleasant for most of us. In fact, after earnest consideration, this gap is as indisputable as law to the stability of society.

The gap between law and morality more of beneficial than detrimental, which serves to be cushion of people who has little legal consciousness and who tend to commit crime. The gap--Moral persuasion, serves to prevent people with low legal consciousness from becoming a real criminal. By moral persuasion, many people especially those young people come to realize what justice is. By moral admonition, many people stop their feet to the jail. If law really keeps abreast with morality, the society will also be chaotic as a society without the government of laws. Isn't it ridiculous that a person is sent to jail as long as he/she forget to say "Good Morning" to his teacher? Isn't it horrible that a person will be punished as soon as he/she scold his/her parents?

As shown above, a harmonious society should necessitate joint effort of legal restraint and moral admonition. The gap between morality and laws cited in the speaker's claim is as necessary as morality and laws.