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Think of the words we use in defining various kinds of crime. They are: murder, assuault, rape, robbery, theft, embezzlement, fruad, arson, vandalism, extortion, mugging, burglary, and breaking and entering. Every one of these words relates to a particular type of behavior which has, at its base, force, the threat of force, guile, or mischief of some kind aimed at the relation between a person (an Owner) and something he or she owns. Men and women acting as government have added to this list certain "legal" crimes, such as failing to pay taxes, smoking tobacco in a building, failing to stop at a stop sign, not wearing a seat belt, or failing to obey a police officer. These are "crimes" only in a legal sense. It might even be moral to not pay taxes, or to not obey a police officer, if he or she were ordering a person to commit a breach of morality, or the law. This addition of legal or "administrative" crimes to the basic list of moral crimes has often served to confuse the issues. There is a human tendency in civilized societies to presume and suppose that a legal command is, ipso facto (Latin - "by the fact itself") a moral command. In the main, while it probably would be, it might not be. That a command is given by an authority does not predetermine its morality. You cannot legislate reality. Something is either real or it isn't. Factually, and relating to reality rather than legality, crime is nothing more or less than a trespass against the rights of an owner. Go to next lesson ... >>
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