Once a week, American law, foreign policy, and culture are chastised for one of a plethora of reasons by some cohort of mine. It’s weird how the context with which a complaint against my country is presented, defines my reaction.
Case in point: A European friend, in a hubristic tone of superiority, grilled me on the US’s tradition of capital punishment. Ordinarily I would agree the act is unnecessary as a natural law, but this particular time, after some thinking, I have approached it from a more biased angle. Biased yet appropriate.
Europe has abolished capital punishment in the Union. Kudos for doing so, but at what cost? Under what context? Before the EU was formed, the majority of its countries used and boasted capital punishment. But their sovereign right to decide was forfeited by signing the EU constitution. This constitution, twice thicker than a phonebook, was presented to each country with the option to either vote yay or nay on the entire document. Thumbs up on the whole thing and ascension in the EU, or thumbs down and a fade into insignificance. The US, on the other hand, in bringing its states together under a single federal entity, voted on each of the bill of rights individually. There were more than ten initially, but lacking a unanimous vote, some bills were thrown out.
And thats Democracy.
When an EU judge views capital punishment as being immoral, what in his educational background has qualified him to impose his moral views on others? The same goes for the right to assisted suicide, homosexual sodomy and abortion; right or wrong can not be determined by a judge. It must be determined by society. There in lies the difference between the two systems of law. It is not that American judges deem capital punishment an appropriate punishment, it is that American judges have a deeper conviction over any single natural law, and that deeper conviction is democracy. Democracy is our foundation, not the whims of a judges values at a given moment. The dictatorship of the virtuous has lead to inquisitions and witch hunts. We must approach progress with caution. Progress Morality Progress Morality: the often touted justification for much of the worlds impositions onto others. But progress towards what? Morality in whose eyes? Progress towards chaos is not to be commended. Moral certainty has brought self righteousness. We mustn’t judge with the rule of law that which is beyond the scope of the majority, and in the countries of Europe as well the states of the US, the majorities often prefer capital punishment. Decisions made by the elite few in opposition to the majority is effective in so long as the elite few exude well intentioned intelligence. But this structure of decision making is ephemeral in its efficiency. The long term requires the tossing and turning of the masses in order to stay afloat. Democracy is certainly slower; but it also certainly prevents a state from straying too far. Either progress towards well being or progress towards ill being: Democracy grants its citizens exactly what they deserve.
And thats America.
No comments:
Post a Comment