'policing ourselves' - are we ready yet?

Could we be responsible enough to 'police ourselves'?

In these little 'sub-groups' within communities, like the drug addicts or the'off-road 4-Wheelers' , we see it. When complaints start coming in about them, they talk to their members and ask that they refrain from doing the things that are getting complaints.
Its called peer pressure, but we have forgotten that it can be used for good things too, not just a way to start smoking.

And yes, it does happen even with drug addicts.

One problem with any policing is that the groups start to use it as behavior modification. That has to be avoided. "THE LAW" , as in the legislated legal law we all live under, does the behavior modification thing too - thats where things like prohibition are used, and the idea is to get people to change their personal preferances so as to fall in line with the church ladies who'se husbands are on the board.But these behaviors are not impacting directly on other people's lives, and so should not be addressed in law.

So I figger that if we policed ourselves, and avoided the "silly law" stuff, we would have much more respect than the current legal system does. Its about respect, and yes, even druggies obey those vibes, man. People are so much more likely to avoid doing something that "bums other people out" than they are to obey instituitionalised legal guidelines; they will leave the neighbor's wood pile alone but won't hesitate to break laws that come with jail time.

Addicts are bad tho, they wil cheat you every time. Desperation is why - withdrawals are a horror. That same addict who stole your money will turn around and cook supper for you and repay the money after he gets his fix. Does that ever need to happen? -Do we really need to allow any situation to develop in this modern world that makes anyone so desperate? No, its all arbitrary, decided by people using laws as social agenda. {eg-Do you have drug problems? -No, I have some thanks.}.

So Respect, Desperation, and sticking to laws that are Valid, not promoting a social agenda, would result in a legal system that keeps people from bothering other people. Laws should be about " non-interferance with others", and if the law is interfering with your choices, then it gets no respect because it is breaking the golden rule - Do Unto Others [would a conservative type person want laws to tell them that they cannot take a certain pharmaceutical pill, because I believe it is bad? ;"You cant take that drug, only these ones" is breaking golden rules]

Riot squads - Can we do it ourselves? Can we ever assemble in a lrge crowd and not riot?
I believe people will start to behave better if we are given the encouragement instead of bringing out the riot squads in front of crowds, which only raises the level of tension.

Last summer, I saw a crowd ready to riot, then come the police, but a few of the crowd started chanting "peacefull protest", and everything got quiet again, it was really great to see. Sometimes the Police even taunt the crowds, or get one scuffle going. They actually incite these crowds , to get them going, to show the world that police are needed and to show that riots break out in every assembly, which allows for more crowd control measures, and up and up it goes. We can move the other direction on this.

Sure, we have a ways to go, but with a goal in mind, and a culture that builds trust instead of so much misinformation and deceipt and hypocracy, we can do it.

I want people to learn what it is to "be cool". In crowds, "be cool", and in all we do, be cool and dont bum anyone out. There was a great culture forming in the 60's - 1960's that is - that was squashed under their own weight by the forces of currupting what was good behavior. Not messing with anyone was a golden rule to the hippies. The Capitalists saw this and didn't like it a bit - it was threat to their ways. They started taking advantage of the good wil of hippies, and made them not trust each other, and it went downhill from there.

So we can do it, we want to do it, we have experience at doing it, and we jsut need the smallest chance to actualy do it as a way of life - "don't tell me what to do"

Karlin.