新手再次求点评，issue一片

富士山下UID: 2489406

限时写的，卡的很刚刚好

Claim: Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system.
Reason: Laws cannot change what is in people's hearts or minds.


It has been claimed by some people that many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and legal system, based on the reason that laws cannot change what people think. While I agree that certain problems indeed could not be eliminated by laws, I disagree with the claim in general for the following reasons.

Admittedly, laws and regulations set out to control people's behavior instead of thinking. Despite the fact the laws are being refined and improved on a regular basis to better serve its purpose, people still break laws for very simple and straightforward reasons. Criminals, for example, fail in the internal fight against greediness and therefore commit robberies and such, which have been clearly stated in laws as illegal. In such scenarios, we can argue that laws cannot fetter the evil minds of some people.

However, it is a generalized and therefore false conclusion to determine laws cannot change what people think. Because ultimately, most of people's ideas are put into behaviours that induce positive or negative influences on their surroundings. And laws in these cases, can definitely control the behaviours accordingly. A good case in point here is racial discrimination. Laws cannot regulate how people view other races personally, but it strives for equity among all races in work and public environments. It has been long set as a standard recruiting statement among many employers that the firm is an equal employer and does not discriminate potential employees on races, genders, national origins, etc. Some firms and academic institutions even encourage racial diversity. This I believe is one big step toward eliminating racial discrimination. This illustrates how laws can solve problems that are seemingly determined by people's ideas.

Moreover, the statement is flawed in that it fails to realize people's thinking can change under the introduction of new legal bills and such. Let's take gay marriage as an example. Although the issue has not worked out on a federal level, many states in the U.S. have approved gay marriage and given them same benefits that heterosexual couples have. The controversial law has attracted huge media attention, thus uncovering many gay marriage stories for the general public. Politicians also use gay marriage as a political tool. As we are exposed more and more to the topic, we naturally change our opinions, consciously or subconsciously. As societies give gay people less pressure, we might even have friends or family that choose to reveal their true sexual orientation, which would dramatically change how we think of the issue.

To conclude, I do not agree with the statement that many social problems cannot be solved by the legal system merely because laws cannot change people's mind. On the contrary, laws can, and have changed people's ideas, and will continue to do so in the future.