At one point or other in our lives we have found ourselves running afoul of some kind of unwritten rule. Often these occur in childhood, ‘don’t speak with your mouth full’, yet this contains far more than we would think on the appearance of it. The phrase, ‘don’t speak with your mouth full’, connotes a social structure in which certain behaviours are given the notion of civility. What would happen if one spoke with one’s ‘mouth full’, surprisingly very little which would fall under the definition of the tragic (sorry, Euripides). However, in order to maintain a sense of social decorum in which the bigger, or should we say real, laws are obeyed, then some of the unwritten laws must be adhered to as though they are written laws.
Some so-called unwritten laws flirt with the actual law. A good example of this would be the Ten Commandments from the Judaeo-Christian faith in which ‘actual’ laws such as ‘Thou shalt not kill’, are interspersed with others such as not coveting thy neighbours’ possessions or family members. Yet, even with the Ten Commandments there is a social element which would go to maintain a society. The notion of not having anyone higher than God can easily be twisted, or read, as one saying that those who are in power cannot be questioned. The possibility of corruption that this can create is obvious, but with the actual written laws, this possibility is removed. Right?
As you probably guess from my obvious sentence structure, corruption of position, or by those in arbitrary ‘power’ (note: real power stems from the freedom of the individual to discover who they are through thought and sometimes action, for example, one can realise one has homicidal tendencies without committing a murder) is common and, in many instances, the written law is powerless to protect the victims. Why is it powerless? Because law is a living thing and must be enacted and without it being enacted it is just words on a tablet. The question this then creates is, how is it powerless? Why is it not enacted? Sadly, the answer to why the written law is undermined comes from the unwritten laws.
Imagine if you will, a servant sees the king committing a murder. The servant runs to the queen but is not admitted due to his lowly social standing. Thusly an arbitrary unwritten law such as social hierarchal structures stymies the written law and if the servant was to speak up it would be his word against a king’s. One does not have to think too hard to surmises the outcome (note: this is also another example of why knowledge is not always power). We can take this a step back and ask, would a child who is being sexually assaulted be believed over her mother? Would an employee be believed over a manager? Would a citizen over a Prime Minister? And so on and so forth. If you are unsure as to the answer to my questions, have a quick look at history and you’ll probably see a trend emerging quite quickly.
The next question from this would be, why would the unwritten laws have precedent over the written laws? The answer to this is something we have touched on many times. People are, generally, insecure. We worry about our social standing, how we look to others, being in the herd and so on and so forth. The Greek philosopher Plato noted that no one is despised more than he who speaks the truth, and I would go a little further and say that no one who is despised more than one who speaks a truth which can shake the foundations of those who, through fear, side with the unwritten laws of the herd over the written laws, out of fear of being punished (expelled from the group etc.). Thusly, as history has shown, many good people who have abided by the written law, yet run afoul of the unwritten laws of the group, often suffer disastrous consequences. Whilst we can argue that the written law was created by great, wise people such as the Ancient Greek Solon and Moses et al, the unwritten laws were created by the lowest common denominator to justify their own fears and never put them in a position when they must be held accountable for their own crimes against that which we all are- humanity.
‘till next time
Note: Biblical Laws can be seen in some contexts to be outdated, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, pro-slavery, absurd etc. but the core of these laws can contain a real truth, it is up to the arbitrators of law (us) to evolve the written law to make it a living law for as society grows, so must the laws guarding it, but even so, maintain the simple truths, for example Psalm 82: ‘Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.’
thegreaterfool2016 