M
Michael19682
Guest
Dear Catholic Answers Readers,
I was looking at the headlines of both the news and this forum. I really would like to know who agrees and who disagrees with the idea that in our modern American culture, there is not so direct a relationship between civil directives and authorities called law - no matter how great the actual potential to enforce these - and peoples behavior. Take illegal drugs. Laws get stiffer, and here in NY the Church has long advocated the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug laws. Yet drugs, even very dangerous ones, continue to ‘proliferate’ at alarming rates. At least in that regard, the relationship bewteen policy, advocacy, and street law (an unsanctioned form of popular policy) is convoluted and complex. But noteworthy is the inverse relationship between Law and actual prevalence of drugs. Perhaps a different analogy is appropriate. Poaching of elephants (no reference to political symbols, I assure …). It has been shown and showcased in economics texts that the more severe the penalty for poaching, and even the confiscation of ivory tusks en masse, only serve to make the stakes for illegal poaching higher and further endanger the poor creatures lives.
If we the Church witness only greater and greater numbers of abortions: Why do we stick to a policy that seems to be only perpetuating the offense we seek to abolish?
My best guess is that we have no alternative. But I would love to know what others think. Especially interested am I in analogies to allopathic and homeopathic medicine types. (Hint Hint, I am pointing a finger at practicioners of mental health, who seem to listen in the wrong way to the song entitled: “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind.”
I was looking at the headlines of both the news and this forum. I really would like to know who agrees and who disagrees with the idea that in our modern American culture, there is not so direct a relationship between civil directives and authorities called law - no matter how great the actual potential to enforce these - and peoples behavior. Take illegal drugs. Laws get stiffer, and here in NY the Church has long advocated the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug laws. Yet drugs, even very dangerous ones, continue to ‘proliferate’ at alarming rates. At least in that regard, the relationship bewteen policy, advocacy, and street law (an unsanctioned form of popular policy) is convoluted and complex. But noteworthy is the inverse relationship between Law and actual prevalence of drugs. Perhaps a different analogy is appropriate. Poaching of elephants (no reference to political symbols, I assure …). It has been shown and showcased in economics texts that the more severe the penalty for poaching, and even the confiscation of ivory tusks en masse, only serve to make the stakes for illegal poaching higher and further endanger the poor creatures lives.
If we the Church witness only greater and greater numbers of abortions: Why do we stick to a policy that seems to be only perpetuating the offense we seek to abolish?
My best guess is that we have no alternative. But I would love to know what others think. Especially interested am I in analogies to allopathic and homeopathic medicine types. (Hint Hint, I am pointing a finger at practicioners of mental health, who seem to listen in the wrong way to the song entitled: “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind.”