2009-06-14

Enforcing Morality

How can a moral person oppose laws that enforce moral behavior?

First, one only gets moral credit for doing something optional. If someone forces me to obey then I'm not obeying out of my own free will. You don't get points for doing the right thing unless you could have done something else.

Second, people often disagree about what is and is not moral. If I endorse government enforcement of morality, I risk being forced to behave according to someone else's (wrong) moral beliefs. If you want to be free to do what you believe is moral, then you are better off not giving the government permission to regulate that thing.

Third, there is no compelling reason to legislate morality in general. There are specific areas that can be legitimately regulated in order to allow society to function, but they are a subset of what is moral, not the other way around.

Fourth, in order to successfully enforce moral behavior a government needs to possess the apparatus and powers of a police state. Once the mechanisms of a police state exist, they will inevitably be used against innocent people.

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