286 Under what circumstances, if any, is it okay to break the law?

That’s a crazy human question,
And I guess I ought to say,
Cultures just ain’t everlasting,
Laws can change from day to day.
And I’d quess I’d have to say
When I look back,
That it ain’t too easy
Even to keep track.

That’s a true song. I was listening in at a University, one time, and a student asked a Lecturer whether it's true that there’s nothing that’s illegal in one culture that hasn’t been legally enjoined upon the population of another. The guy she asked was a Criminologist and he thought for a long few minutes before he told her that blasphemy and treason were always illegal, but everything else that’s been banned in one culture has been enforced in another.

He was almost right, but if she wanted a more accurate answer she should have asked a historian – or a real old demon. There’s been cultures that downright encouraged blasphemy.

I guess that, for humans, it’s okay to break the law when the consequences of keeping within the law are worse than the consequences of breaking it; when you’ll starve without that stolen loaf. Take care, though, the law is usually rougher on the poor who steal from hunger than on the rich who steal from greed. I guess it’s always okay if you can get away with it - if the law won’t hunt you down or your conscience give you a real hot number over whatever you’ve done.

"Sweet" the singing demon

Fandom, BTVS

Words, 243