Law and Justice

“It’s your right to break the law when your conscience is offended; but then you must accept your punishment” (Pg/119).

The quote above is from the “Accept Your Punishment!” section from Socrate’s position. Law is explained as man made rules that are set and stone for what are to be abided by and the result of breaking these rules do have consequence usually being a fine or prison. Justice is defined as what is believed by our own conscience. The main message of this section of the article is we must respect the laws even if it means breaking them but then by serving the punishment to make our point clear not because we have to.
Both law and justice are most definitely necessary to make our country as fair as possible. Laws set the ground rules for citizens to determine what is supposed to be right and wrong. Sometimes laws are absurd and that’s where justice comes into play. Who knows where we would be if there weren’t those few who stood up for what they thought was right to make our country a better place, such as the article mentions Martin Luther King Jr. and how he made his statement by standing up for what he believed in and then serving his punishment to make it clear to his people. I believe there is only one change that has affected law and justice over time; we as a country have slowly cared less and less. People’s morals seem to be a lot less today than they were 30-50 years ago and it seems more or less like the domino effect where we let one thing slide and haven’t stopped since the start.