Are there too many, or to few, rules?

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday July 6th, 2009

Our intrepid editor, Norbert Cunningham, suggested a book for me to read; it is called "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker.

Part of my reading in the book reminded me of some old school social/political philosophy I learned back in the Mount Allison days of my youth.

So today my column will be based around a fictional argument between Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French philosopher from the 1700's and Thomas Hobbes, who wrote way back in the late 1500's.

OK, so here is how Hobbes saw the world; he said that ". . . during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war . . ."

The thing is, Hobbes believed that left to our own devices, we would all be violent and miserable; what we really need is someone to take control and force us to act in ways that would benefit us.

In the other corner, we have Rousseau who argued that ". . . nothing can be more gentle than him in his primitive state . . ."

Rousseau had the belief that indigenous people, when not corrupted by society and modernization, were essentially peaceful, selfless and happy.

But let me put this a different way; do you think people are naturally good, or bad?

What makes people different?

Now, a lot of people would tell you that it is entirely the environment, that upbringing and opportunity, and social status, and any number of factors make us turn out the way we are.

Others will tell you that they know people who are simply bad apples.

It seems to me that it is impossible to test this theory. There is absolutely no way to have two people raised in exactly the same way -- even birth order makes a huge difference in how we treat our kids. So perhaps the argument is not worth having.

If we cannot prove that environmental factors make a difference, and we cannot prove that people are born the way they will turn out, why argue about it?

Well, think about it this way, are there too many, or too few rules?

If we look at life one way, it is the rules that get in the way of our happiness and if we just could get back to nature, back to basics, life would be perfect.

From the other side, it is only the rules that corral us into being a workable society. What we actually need is better and stronger laws that force us to abandon our evil ways.

As you can guess, Hobbes' theory that we are all pretty incapable of rising above violence and need rules has always won the day. Witness the laws about seat belts and the taxes on smoking and alcohol.

I am honestly never sure which way to go with this. The Americans, it seems to me, fall more into a Rousseau camp. Although, it never pays to remind them that most of their political philosophy is based on the French.

Freedom of the individual is one of the most cherished institutions of the United States. Thus you should be free to own a gun, to drink yourself to death, not wear a motorcycle helmet and many other interesting things.

It is not anarchy; however, there are still speed limits and no smoking signs. There is still a sense that we need rules, but there is a sense that there is less that we should give up our freedoms for. There is certainly less trust that the institutions that make rules, be they police officers or government, are doing so for the common good.

So what do you think? Should you be free to drive a motorcycle without a helmet even though you are almost 100 per cent likely to be brain dead after an accident?

Should cigarette smoking cost almost nothing even though it causes some of the harshest and most expensive diseases our health system faces?

Do you trust everyone around you to make wise choices most of the time?

Or do you trust that the law will constrain them from doing what they naturally want to do?

There are tests all the time about this; remember a little over a year ago when they were doing a secretive survey to see what city was the most honest, and what city was the most helpful. Metro Moncton ranks pretty high when you consider how many lost wallets are turned in and how many strangers will stop to help you change a tire.

But is it because we are naturally nice or because our Maritime parents kept at us and taught us how to behave civilly?

The truth, as always, is probably somewhere in between.

To be open to the possibility that it is not black and white might be really helpful. Sometimes there are people we encounter who are who they are because of bad circumstances; sometimes there are people who are just born that way; but most often, it is a combination of everything that has brought them to this point.

Society is. There is no point in arguing against what has already happened as it is part of where we find ourselves. The real trick is learning to understand how it functions and why. The better handle we have on that the more capable we are of navigating the sometimes mysterious world we live in.