#Complexity, The Enemy of Freedom And the Harbinger of #Revolution

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A VERY important read, IMO.. Here is the source post if you prefer..
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America's salvation as a free country rests, not in complexity, but in simplicity and fewer law
Complexity, The Enemy of Freedom And the Harbinger of Revolution

By Ron Ewart Saturday, January 23, 2010

“There is an inviolate law in nature. Complexity in organisms can lead to the emergence of order. Biological evolution and the diversity of life on Earth is a result of that law. However, it has also been shown that too much complexity in these organisms, in almost all cases, leads to chaos and finally extinction of the organism.” Ron Ewart

Years ago we had a small company that did business with the military, wherein we installed electronic equipment on military bases. We would get the bid specifications, submit our bid and then if accepted, wait for the contract that would seal the deal. The contract would come, consisting of a hundred pages or more and we would read it over as best we could without really knowing its full content and what would happen if their was a breach by either party, or what would happen with all the other contingencies that were buried in those pages. Nevertheless, we signed the contract and proceeded on faith with the work. We couldn’t afford the lawyers that would be necessary to review the contract to make sure that our financial behinds were covered. We knew that there was no modifying the contract with the military. It was their way, or we simply didn’t get the work.

One of the great tricks with the lawyers that write these contracts, is to bury references to other statutes or laws, or agreements in the wording. We could read the contract, but would have no way of obtaining the documents that were referenced in it, without much more work than our little company could afford. We were not alone in this phenomenon of doing business, either with the government, or very large companies. Many a business has failed because they violated a provision in a contract of which they were not aware.

For 233 years politicians and lawyers have been adding law, after law, after law to the 17 pages contained in the Supreme Law of the Land, our Constitution. On top of the legislation are the millions of court decisions adding to or modifying existing law. On top of the federal law are all the laws that are passed by state and local legislatures. On top of federal, state and local law, comes the “rules” that are promulgated by the ever-growing fourth branch of government, the bureaucracies. It isn’t negligence or ineptness, it is just plain insane. It is a spider gone mad and spinning a web from which there is no escape, even for the spider.

Essentially, each new law requires new administration and enforcement. Government employment continuously grows, exponentially. By just sheer numbers, the more laws that are written, the less likely the entire population will even know about the laws, or understand them, or know of their consequences or penalties for violation, much less be in compliance with them. The consequence of too many laws is that huge segments of the public are totally unaware of the laws existence. And yet, under the law, ignorance of the law is not a defense. Then, when the hapless individual comes face-to-face with the law, it results in anger and frustration for that individual and a spiraling degradation of freedom and liberty for all of us. Sometimes it can lead to huge fines and extended incarceration.

Many laws are written at the insistence of lobbying or special interest groups with very narrow and purposely hidden agendas. The public never has an opportunity for real input and society as a whole is not benefited. Partisan politics often compromises a new law into meaningless, often conflicting legislation, leaving loopholes over which lawyers can argue over for decades. The House version of the Health Care bill was over 2,000 pages containing thousands of references to other laws. The Senate version is a little smaller but just as complex. The “Crap” and Trade bill is also over 1,500 pages and contains more references ..... more restrictions ..... more regulations which can only lead to less freedom and less liberty.

Each new bill out of the U. S. Congress, all state legislatures and all local governments are so complex that conflict in either the new law or other existing laws, is virtually assured. Why are they complex? Because lawyers write them and lawyers get paid very well for interpreting the laws they write and “fixing” the conflicts. Further, they are purposely complex to keep a naive’ public from knowing what’s in them, much less taking the time to read them.
America’s salvation as a free country rests, not in complexity, but in simplicity and fewer laws. Yes, a complex society needs laws to maintain “reasonable” societal order. But as laws increase, after a certain point, order begins to breakdown under its own weight of the people trying to comply with often conflicting and confusing codes, ordinances, regulations and acts. As the IRS code has increased over the years because Congress plays “social” games with it, general compliance of the code has decreased. As a result there is a growing shadow commerce from which no revenue to the government is realized. Some people are so frustrated they just never file a return, risking fines and jail times.

And worse, the more laws there are, the more opportunities for emotionally and financially draining lawsuits between aggrieved parties, egged on by lawyers who make their living off of human weaknesses and interpreting laws that no one else can understand.

Special interest groups use the law to sue the government when they allege the government is not in compliance with the law. If the government loses, and they lose often, they have to pay the special interest group damages, court costs and attorneys fees. But what is worse, government has no money of its own, it must pay the special interest group with our money. Billions of our tax dollars are wasted in this manner.

In the final analysis, extending legislating and law creation to its absurdity, one arrives at a point where there are so many laws that no one is in compliance and we end up losing our ability to fully enforce any of them. We become in fact, lawless by the very chaos that lawmakers have created. From lawlessness comes enslavement due to increased enforcement. If there is a general uprising against the law, government can instantly invoke martial law. Eventually, from enslavement, comes revolution.

Without exception, every nation who has either ruled by brute force, or ruled by the ever-rising complexity in their laws, ends in revolution. There is no reason that history will not repeat itself in America, as we travel down the road towards irrational complexity. Only the combined will of the people can stop it. But will they?