Imagine for a moment, if you will, that we’re in a state of primitive anarchy. We know nothing of the reign of tyrants and kings, we’ve never heard of the Magna Carta and the American Constitution, and we don’t know the meaning of government and society. We’ll call this land Kimbalia. The people there are strange, as you can see from the photo on the right.
One day, I notice how far I have to walk through the jungle to get to the main watering hole in Kimbalia. My neighbors have the same problem. I could spend all of my time and resources building a road to the watering hole by myself and not let my neighbors use it. But there’s an easier way…. My neighbors and I decide to build one big road together, dividing the work and dividing the raw materials that each man contributes, and then we share the road. Each man’s contribution is less than it would have been if he had built the road by himself.
Eventually, my neighbors and I become so happy with our arrangement that we take it to new levels, and include more and more people so that each one of us has to pay less. Everyone in Kimbalia chips in some lumber or some food so that we can pay a witch-doctor to treat us when we’re sick. Even for those Kimbalians who are usually healthy, the deal is still beneficial to them, as insurance in case they fall ill and need to see the witch-doctor immediately.
Instead of delivering our own messages, we Kimbalians find we can get more work done on our farms if we come together to retain the services of Adam Trofa to deliver messages daily all around Kimbalia; plus, Adam Trofa can run around the country in just one day, whereas the same run takes most Kimbalians almost a month, making important events and warnings nearly impossible to communicate in time.
Then, the residents of Kimbalia decide that it’s ineffective for each man to try to patrol his own farm from roving hordes of barbarian marauders, so we hire trained men with clubs to patrol the land of Kimbalia for us. Due to the high risk of the Kimbalians’ farms burning down in the hot, dry, summer, we hire men to fight fires. Each Kimbalian pays only a small amount for this service, but it has paid off many times when the men have saved farms, and the cost to pay the men, shared among all the Kimbalians, is very small compared to the amount of protection they provide in case of a fire.
You can stop imagining now. Thank you.
We’ve obviously developed terms for all of these concepts: taxes, infrastructure, healthcare (although it’s still not part of society’s obligation today), military/police, firemen, et cetera. We expect services that improve our lives from society. Education is another one. Last year, whenever a student came into AP Chem class without knowing Roman numerals, Coach Jacobs would scream at him to march down to the superintendent’s office and demand his tax dollars back. We have the right to expect these services because we’re paying for them with our tax dollars, the exact same way that we expect to be served at a restaurant because we’re footing the bill.
The United States government is just one society that exists in our lives, but nearly all other societies work the same way. For example, Ms. Kimball and Ms. Hastings pay dues to a teachers’ union, and in return they get certain protections and benefits. If the union ever stopped fulfilling its end of the bargain and didn’t protect teachers in the next contract negotiations or didn’t make teachers feel like they were being represented in the bureaucracy, the teachers would stop paying their dues to the union (or call for new leadership, if possible). Likewise, if teachers one day decided they just wouldn’t pay the union any more, they would lose the benefits they had from being in the union.
Government and all other societies, at their most basic forms, are simply capitalistic vendors of protection and other benefits. Societies exist to make our lives better, in exchange for some relatively small contribution of time, effort, or money. Societies always seek to grow in members in order to maximize risk-sharing and resources, thus decreasing the cost per member of being in the society and/or increasing the services that the society provides to each member.
There are two situations in which we wouldn’t be required to follow the rules of a society. One scenario is if the society does not fulfill its part in its contract. In such a case, members of the society would be justified in withdrawing their support.
The other scenario is whenever not following the rules would be for the good of the society. Essentially, any successful society has one reason to function: to give as much benefit to its members for the lowest cost. Rules, regulations, laws, bylaws—all that stuff exists solely to help the society to achieve that one purpose. Since societies exist to bring benefit to their members, the other scenario in which violating the rules of a society would be permissible would be in order to bring greater net benefit to its members. For example, if you would turn on your thinking cap once more:
The primitive people of Kimbalia have magically created cars to run on their beautiful new roads. Due to a high number of car accidents, they have magically forged traffic lights to control traffic, as well. Farmer Kohlberg, one of the Kimbalians, is driving his pregnant wife, who is about to give birth, to the witch-doctor when he comes to a red light. His wife needs to get some herbs from the witch doctor immediately, if not sooner. What should the farmer do?
Obviously, the law was intended to protect the Kimbalians, not to hurt them. So, the farmer looks both ways, feels fairly confident that no cars are coming, and proceeds through the red light, thus violating the Kimbalian society’s rules. He does so, however, for the good of the society. The good of the society is always the supreme directive, and all other rules in a society are subordinate to that goal.
