For a certainty, there are plenty of people that are overly proud that America, represents for them: freedom and liberty; and not just any freedom and liberty, but pretty much this means that they can do whatever that they want, whenever that they want, forever, if they want. Of course, even those that profess those thoughts, recognize that freedom and liberty does have to involve some degree of reasonable restraints that are necessitated, because without such, there would not really be any semblance of civilization as we know it, but rather it would basically be chaos.
The main reason why we have so many laws, rules, and regulations, is to temper humankind’s desire for absolute liberty, with reasonable restraints that thus serve to not only help to secure and benefit the public, at large, but also as a way and means to keep people from basically infringing upon the rights of others, that would be violated, if these laws, rules, and regulations were not so imposed. That is to say, our liberty can never be a one-way street, in which everything that we so desire to do, is ours for the taking, because in a society like that, doing that is going to inevitably create conflict with all those that have different ideas and different desires that they so wish to invoke and indulge in. So then, without reasonable self-restraint and self-control being exercised within society, we do so find that not too surprisingly, there won’t be enough paper in the world, to thus conceive of all the laws, rules, and regulations so needed, that would fairly take into account every conceivable contingency that would invariably come up. Rather, what we find is that for a wholesome civilization to exist and to thrive, this thus necessitates that each individual demonstrate their capacity to utilize suitable self-restraint and self-control for the greater good of that society.
That is to say, laws, rules, and regulations, no matter how well written or how sound in structure, have a tendency to be bent, ignored, or not enforced consistently, so that effectively, they aren’t going to be as robust as envisioned or intentioned. On the other hand, people that have developed appropriate self-control and self-restraint, and further know what they really should or should not be doing, and thus exercise proper discretion in their interactions with one another, are going to help make for a better civilization, as opposed to those that aren’t able to control or to restrain their selves.
Those then that believe that all we really need in order to have a good civilization is more law and order, don’t seem to recognize that all the law and order in the world, will never be enough to control or restrain any population, if they are unwilling to amend their ways, because they don’t desire to do so, don’t think it’s right, or perhaps don’t know any better. That is why it is so important, that we properly educate people to know that the freedom and liberty that we so desire to have, has incumbent responsibilities placed upon each individual, and when we appropriately exercise self-restraint and self-control we are thus doing our fair part to make for a better civilization, for all.