Rules and Rule Enforcers
By Charles Tolleson
April 13, 2011

"There ought to be a law against that"! How many times have you heard someone say those words?

Many years ago when the country was sparsely populated there were fewer rules, and fewer rule enforcers. Many people relied on their gods to enforce the rules and dispense punishment. There were no rules against washing dirty laundry with lye soap in a public stream and no Environmental Protection Agency. There was no rule against an outhouse in your back yard. Still society had bad rules and bad enforcers. There were State rules that allowed slavery and prohibited interracial marriages. And there were Sunday Blue Laws, a rule that prohibited the sale of liquor on Sunday.

Now we have- “There are rules on how to keep water clean and how much water should be used to flush a toilet; for how much gas cars can guzzle, and — under one now in the works — for rear-view cameras or sensors to keep drivers from backing over toddlers; for how to build commercial airplanes — right down to their nuts and bolts — and for how to launch amateur model rockets.” – Nancy Benac, AP

Other rules about manners in the workplace seem so unnecessary. It’s as if there were no manners before the rule enforcers had so much power.

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte

In 1939 there were 550 pages covering the U.S, Tax laws. Today those pages are a staggering 72,000!

As the population became more crowded, people demanded more rules. There soon were so many people with their idea of how other people should behave, according to their beliefs, that more rules were created. Our desire for safety makes us call for more and more rules. These same people who wanted more rules also decided the rules needed enforcers, so, more enforcers were created. Today there are over 17 million federal, state, and local full time government employees.

The rule enforcers are happy to create fear because the masses overact to the risks of danger and want to be safe. The rule enforcers are happy to promise safety in exchange for power and perks. Mass fear among the public drives people to demand rules that will protect them and the rule enforcers are happy to comply. “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

It has become obvious that government rule enforcers benefit by having more rules. More rules means more jobs available to the government rule enforcers. The government rule enforcers have their unions and department representatives testifying before legislative bodies asking for more rules. More rules means more enforcers and more lobbying power, which means more generous pay and benefits.

There was a recent ballot initiative in California to legalize marijuana. It was favored to win until the enforcers of the rule against using marijuana; the District Attorneys and the police, came out against the initiative. The initiative lost and the police and district attorneys will get to keep their enforcers’ jobs.

The American Bar Association likes having many rules because it creates much work for them in defending clients who break the rules. There are so many rules it is common for us to unknowingly break a rule, thus creating work for the enforcers; judges, police, DAs, court reporters, bailiffs, prison guards, parole officers, etc, etc.

Three Felonies a Day, by Harvey Silverglate, has many examples of the federal rules we may inadvertently break, thus creating work for the enforcers and for our defense attorneys.

The rule enforcers have a conflict of interest with liberty and their jobs. No rule enforcer is going to say a rule is unnecessary and unconstitutional and needs to be repealed for the sake of liberty. Eliminating these rules would eliminate jobs of the rule enforcers.

"Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves." ~Author Unknown

Try to imagine how many great inventions were invented before there were so many rules and bureaucratic rule enforcers. As great as our progress is, without the past and current rule makers we could be on our way to distant stars. “Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.”- Thomas A. Edison

I suppose there are some people who are born with resentment to being ruled. When I was a small child around age six I asked my father if I could walk around town alone. I ran away from home three times as a teen. As a teen I fantasized about living in the nearby river swamp alone, without rules, like the Tarzan I saw in the movies. I was a crop duster in 1958, with few rules, and no business permits, before there was an Environmental Protection Agency.

I don’t think I resent rules as much as I resent the enforcers. Rules are fine and most people will cooperate to get along in society. This spontaneous cooperation is shown by a jogging path in a nearby park. The city planners forced the taxpayers to pay to build a synthetic soccer field with an artificial jogging/walking path around the soccer field. There is no starting place or directions on which way to go on the jogging path. Somehow all the joggers and walkers go counter clockwise, WITHOUT a rule to tell them which way to go. This happens even when only one person is using the path. This is called spontaneous order.

Today I live alone in my condo. Here I have sanctuary from the rule makers and rule enforcers. As soon as I leave my condo I am ensnared and hampered by thousands of rules. I think I would have been happier living 30,000 years ago as a Cro-Magnon where I made up the rules as I went along.