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Breaking Eggs and Laws

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

The Communists used to have a saying, “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.”  By that, they meant that it was alright to run roughshod over some people, and even to intentionally kill some innocent people, in order to build the paradise they envisioned for “society as a whole”.  From their point of view, the ends justified the means.  They certainly did break lots of eggs and kill lots of innocent people, but they didn’t create anything like a paradise.  If they had been thinking rationally, they would have realized that any society willing to intentionally harm innocent people cannot possibly come to a good end -- certainly nothing like a paradise.  Unfortunately, their method of creating a paradise on earth resulted in the intentional killing of millions of innocent people, widespread poverty, and great suffering. 

The United States today is falling into that same trap.  Many of us are willing to intentionally run roughshod over some individuals, injure them, destroy or take their property, slander them, and use other improper means, with the goal of reaching an outcome we think is best for “society as a whole”.  For many of us, the well-intentioned ends justify the use of sneaky, immoral, or underhanded means.  But the world doesn’t work that way.  Immoral means cannot lead to good ends for us any more than they did for the Communists of the past.  Society as a whole cannot be made better by intentionally harming innocent individual members of that society. 

There are a few basic principles that we must obey if we want to protect the individuals in our society.  One is to respect an individual’s right to control his own property and to trade freely with others.  Another is to respect the individual’s freedom of speech.  Another is to respect the right of an individual to defend himself against aggression from others.  When these principles are violated, it means that innocent people are being harmed intentionally, and the result will be harmful for “society as a whole”.

So, when we see zealots enacting smoking bans, overriding the rights of private business owners in order to protect the “public health”, we ought to be concerned.  When we see zoning laws being enacted to protect a “scenic view” by stealing the value of land from the owner, we ought to be concerned.  When we see our freedom of speech being curtailed by campaign finance laws, supposedly to protect the public from unpleasant political competition, we ought to be concerned.  When we see people willing to heavily tax the “rich” in order to care for the “poor”, we ought to be concerned.  When we have so many laws that nearly everyone is guilty of breaking some law, and then we see selective enforcement of those laws, such as the recent selective auditing of a handful of restaurants in Louisville to see whether they have sold enough food to keep their restaurant liquor licenses, we ought to be concerned. 

As we see the property rights, free speech rights, and right to self defense of one person after another being destroyed, we might like the short term results, such as beautiful scenery and smoke-free restaurants, but we should recognize that, if we are willing to victimize others, it is only a matter of time before we become the victims ourselves.  And, if we have done nothing to protect the victims who were abused before us, then maybe we will deserve our fate.

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