GRE Issue: "It is possible to pass laws that control or place limits on people's behavior, but legislation cannot reform human nature. Laws cannot change what is in people's hearts and minds."

My Response Essay:

Admittedly, it is easy on the part of legislators to just enact laws on whateverer they consider to be beneficial to society. Sometimes such laws may amount to be against the basic nature of human behavior. And it is in these cases, real conflict arises and who wins is contingent upon to what extent one party is able to convince and exert its influence over another.

One example worth quoting is that of all-prevalent corruption. Absolutely no country or society can boast of getting rid of it. And it afflicts not only today's world but it has been on our planet since time immemorial. Interestingly, the primary reason that no society has been able to stampede it out is that this evil stems from a basic instinct of humans i.e. greed. It is generally observed that no matter how much money one earns, he always has some wants that can not be satisfied with currently available resources and hence the need to have more wealth. And when there are no better means to get it, people resort to corruption. It is no news that every country has tried its best to tackle this problem, and almost every nation has elaborate laws prohibiting corruption but without much success.

We get another instance by peeping into the history in the form of Prohibition experiment tried in the US. Here again, it was essayed to prohibit alcohol consumption. Although this effort was supported by many citizens, it was met with widespread protests. People argued that in a democracy, as long as the consuming something is not resulting directly in damage to others, it is not constitutional to ban its consumption. Then there were industry barons who would have gone out of business if this law had been successful. And owing to all these factors, the legislators had to yield to the opposition and had to retract. Here again was a basic need for pleasure that was at work from the side of people who were opposing this law.



Coming back to the present, we note how arms manufactureres from US and Canada circumvent international laws for their own profits. These manufactureres are prohibited from supplying arms and weapons to certain other nations as a result of international agreements signed by US and Canada. But what these suppliers do is to sub-contract the manufacturing of arms to other nations like China. From these nations, the weaponry finds its way to the countries and regions where it was prohibited, and once in the wrong hands, these weapons are used for torture and killings of innocent people. Here again, rules and regulations -- at international level -- fail to prevent people gaining profits at the expense of inflicting damage to other societies.

Nevertheless, it would be reasonable to admit that if a cause is worthwhile to pursue in the long term, it should be pursued to bring about the change -- and this may mean opposing the human behavior, and bringing social reformation -- for the betterment of society. One compelling example that pops up in mind is how the sore of slavery was eradicated from American society, even though a price had to be paid in terms of thousands of casualties as a result of civil war. In mid 19th century, some southern states chose to secede from the Union when incoln was elected President. The reason was that they thought the abolition of slavery is going to start being imposed for all the states. This forced the Union to first ask the separated states (Confederates) in a friendly way to come back and then resort to violent action against them. The result everyone knows -- Americans were killed by their own fellow beings on both sides. The root of it all was majorly the fear of eradication of slavery which Confederates were opposing as they wanted to retain their power -- again an aspect of human nature -- over their slaves. But ultimately, the Union prevailed and Confederates were brought back. And then, abolition of slavery did happen, albeit slowly.

In sum, legislations and laws can not be used to change basic human behavior like greed and independence. The examples supporting this statement abound in history as well as in the present society. People, in response to such measures either invent strategems to outsmart these laws or they openly protest and force recantation on the part of legislators. But in exceptional cases, laws can and should be used, if required in society's interest to reform human behavior and nature. After all, laws and regulations are the very instruments by which the society strikes a balance between individual interests and collective interests.

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