Too Much Respect for Authority?

I came across this article on TechCentralStation a little while ago titled, Can a People Have Too Much Respect for the Law?

Can a people have too much respect for the law?

This might appear to be a strange question to ask. Americans, after all, seem to believe that it is impossible to have too much respect for the law. Yet a visitor to our shores in 1867 -- and an English barrister at that -- disagreed with this proposition.

The visitor was William Hepworth Dixon...

[...]

Yet there was one aspect of our national character that disagreed with him. Our "deference to the Law, and to every one who wears the semblance of lawful authority, is so complete…as to occasion a traveler some annoyance and more surprise," Dixon wrote. "Every dog in office is obeyed with such unquestioning meekness, that every dog in office is tempted to become a cur."

[...]

Dixon singled out the Justices of the Supreme Court, noting with apparent dismay that they are "treated with a degree of respect akin to that which is paid to an archbishop in Madrid and to a cardinal in Rome." Then he concludes with an admonition:

More than once I have ventured to tell my friends, that this habit of deferring to law and lawful authority, good in itself, has gone with them into extremes, and would lead them, should they let it, into the frame of mind for yielding to the usurpation of any bold despot who may assail their liberties, like Caesar, in the name of law and order.

[...]

This same contempt for the law, however, is not shared by the average American, who displays in 2005 the same exaggerated respect for the law that Dixon observed in 1867. In particular, the general populace continues to adhere to the view that those who have been entrusted with the task of interpreting the law -- especially those sitting on the highest court of our land -- must be deferred to, no matter how absurd or capricious their rulings may appear when approached from the perspective of sheer logic.

People need to be more skeptical of authority now more than ever. It's a healthy and necessary component that needs to be at the heart of every political conversation.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. - Thomas Jefferson

Too much respect for our military?:
I care for the safety of our military as much as the next person, but I just can’t get on board with the whole “Support Our Troops” bumper sticker mantra. I tend to think that the people who brandish this trendy little bumper sticker are also in favor of the war in Iraq itself, but I obviously can’t say for sure. I just don’t see how anyone holding a generally complex opinion about the war or someone in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy would feel comfortable slapping one of these puppies on.

With that said, I recommend watching this Cato event The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. There’s a good portion of America who still romanticize the soldier.

Doug Stanhope has a funny little bit he does on “Hero Pussy”. You can listen to a portion of it on Amazon’s site. Scroll to Track 11 on this page.

Too much respect given to police?:
While it’s really bad laws that should be condemned, and the legislative bodies that pass them, I think police officers serve their own role by giving legitimacy to the bureaucracy of it all as they enforce said bad laws.

I have a lot more respect for those officers that, although they too enforce bad law, also speak out publicly against them when they’re not in uniform. Unfortunately, these are far and few in between.

Lack of accountability, excessive power, combined with an overabundant police force is a dangerous combination.

I’d like to give more credit to the men in uniform, but their job is no more dangerous than a firefighter or a high rise construction worker. You gain your respect from the community by helping keep the peace. Keep stepping on toes and extending your bounds, regardless of following the law of the land, and there will be some sort of backlash.

*Note to LP members doing outreach* Tax Day Protest’s are fine, but why wait for one day out of the year to recruit libertarians, when standing outside your county courthouse after a night of traffic court could generate dozens each week. Let’s capitalize on those that have been shafted by the system. And I'm not denouncing traffic laws just to be clear. I'm talking about those walking out of court feeling that justice wasn't served, that their fines were exorbitant, or that safety...other than their own didn't factor into the violation.