Read other letters about this article

• Friday, November 28, 2008 06:48 AM

  The larger implications of "the book"

  "The book" has been unpopular across the board, in popular culture at least, for some time. It's now settled opinion on the right, for example, that laws merely hold us back from engaging in free enterprise. And after Dirty Harry, the disaffected cop who bends the law became a cliche, completely absorbed by Hollywood and never quite given up. It's part backlash and part propaganda, and it's time to roll it back.

  It's as though most of America now believes "the rules were made to be broken." But it's not just a belief that one can profit from deregulation or federal interference. A companion belief is that "government is broken"---and plenty of non-rightwingers believe this too. It dates back at least to the Carter administration and came to full flower with Ross Perot. It's more than a belief in "smaller government."

  Consider the following disparate domains in which the rules or standard procedures are commonly perceived to be the problem rather than an inadequate solution: the financial markets, environmental regulation, military practice (shooting at journalists and ambulances), the Geneva Conventions, diplomatic traditions, and on and on.

  Even policies like No Child Left Behind and mandatory minimum/three strikes sentencing guidelines interfere, by definition, with the way things are normally handled by existing institutions that were never really broken but were perceived to be by many.

  —Baldie McEagle Read Baldie McEagle's other letters
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel