Your rant reminds me of a terrific monologue by Gene Hackman in The Firm. Couldn't find the scene on youtube, so pardon if I don't have it perfect:I'm sick and tired of trying to stay "within the law" when the law is an arbitrary decision that changes from year to year. When you are a youngster, you make your decisions based on what your mother and father tell you is right and wrong. Once you grow up, you find out that things are NOT black and white, they can't always be boiled down to right and wrong...things are more complicated than that.
I realize that it is necessary to follow the rule of law because that is how we maintain a civilized society but it blows my mind that some dip****/group of dip****s make decisions (that aren't based on real need or any greater need) and I am required to abide or pay the consequences..... F em!
Rant over
"You took the bar exam. Here's a multiple choice question: What's the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion? a) Whatever the IRS says it is. b) 15 years in prison. c) A good lawyer. d) All of the above."
Point being, people start to disassociate government from authority. Decisions and rules start to feel arbitrary, particularly from a moral perspective. Society decays because people feel detached from a narrative they previously felt was important to their shared perspective of being one people.
It's the death of a nation by a thousand cuts.
It's ironic: For all the wisdom we have regarding the predictability of power and corruption, the very people involved in amassing power via corruption fail to appreciate that it always ends in their own destruction. It's the ultimate exercise in self-deception.