Laws buried in dense, immense legislation, passed by dirty legislators under the cover of darkness, or “regulations” that never receive any public scrutiny, much less a vote, can’t be said to reflect any collective will. Their manner of being enacted is testament to the fact that they are likely entirely unacceptable to the man in the street.

The number and effect of “laws” and regulations to which everyone (except the privileged, apparently) is subject is immense and, in practice, is not really knowable until such time as some prosecutor, corrupt or otherwise, decides, for reasons just or unjust, that you have fallen afoul of them.

We’re long, long past the point where we can vote ourselves out of this. When the “law”, twisted and stretched thin, can be used to disqualify political candidates on a whim, it’s obvious that the voting option has been foreclosed.

The question of “whose morality” is interesting, the answer to which at least partially hinges on the distinction between morals and mores. However, if the moral center of gravity is estimated by examining pop culture, then there’s reason for grave concern. But is that the right metric?

There are signs of a resurgence of the recognition of the compelling need for a new ideal, a new supreme value (one from which all other values are derived) that ennobles rather than debases man, that emphasizes loving service over grasping selfishness, that prefers elevation of the soul to gratification of the flesh. Widespread consecration to such a value level is a long time off for we are still at the point where some would even deny the possibility of such a thing. Its realization will be delayed by false teachings and hindered, temporarily, by moral inertia and spiritual indolence, but its day will come.

In the meantime, we had better be prepared for chaos, which will, at best, be punctuated by short periods of relative stability. No social organization can rise much above the lowest common moral denominator among its members (and this refers to a morality based on truth, beauty and goodness, setting aside shallow quibbles along the lines of “whose truth”, which vividly illustrate my point about spiritual indolence). The ratcheting-up of moral fiber and spiritual insight will be matched, albeit after some delay, by commensurate improvements in social conditions. The transitions between regimes are bound to be turbulent. Stay tuned…