The so-called War on Drug Abuse is immoral for a lot of reasons. What can we say from an approach to the question based on Biblical Law?
Remember one basic principle: Any law is evil if there is no reasonable hope of actual enforcement. It does require a heart-led wisdom to see it clearly, but that is a part of our primary critique of Western Civilization in the first place. The Drug War is a symptom of all that’s wrong with the West in general, and the US in particular. But it’s all the more so immoral when you consider that the primary flaw of Western culture is also the primary cause of the high level of drug abuse that threatens social stability.
Let’s state that again: The US legal system is a major cause of substance abuse, so any attempt at enforcement through that system is hypocritical at best.
It is a judicial assumption, flatly stated in many cases, that mysticism is a threat to social order. Think about that for a moment. We teach here that there is no objective truth, and US law bluntly contradicts that. When standing before a judge, you are not permitted to make reference to a decision process that includes a mystical epistemology in your defense. This may not be so boldly asserted in every case, but the net effect of the bulk of judicial philosophy in the US has very little tolerance for genuine mysticism.
You and I know that it is vitally necessary at times to distance ourselves from this fallen world. We need as much exposure as possible to unfallen peace and joy, communion with Creation. Without those moments of heart-led ecstasy, we lose the grip of faith, the very reason we bother to keep on living in this world. By seeking to enter into the divine Presence, we renew and refresh the purpose of enduring. It’s a vital necessity.
The legal system treats this is an illegitimate escape from social duty. You’ll find plenty of verbiage supporting the idea of a cerebral religion, but any effort to depart the shadows and deception of fallen human nature is regarded as dangerous at best. Do I need to remind you that American minds are deeply conditioned by the likes of Beowulf? What does it do to the psyche when “nature” is represented by the likes of Grendel? In that dreary saga, Grendel represents the natural world in which Anglo-Saxons once lived. Everything that falls under the phrase “the American dream” is an endless struggle to defeat Grendel. This is the psychological background of Anglo-American culture. Any attempt to build on some other foundation is called “delusion.”
In the ancient Anglo-Saxon world, the only escape was the occasional well-earned drunken celebration. Do you see where this leads? The average American mind has no place to go to escape a threatening existence except using certain lawful substances, highly regulated and taxed. And of course there is also the highly regulated and taxed medical profession with the hubris to believe mankind can fix every human ill through the mechanics of biochemistry, and so we have a ton of other stress-management substances, also highly regulated and taxed. Their existence and apparent effectiveness is a Siren Song for everyone. We should be surprised that more people aren’t abusing them.
We pretend we have the means to keep social order going by the manful resolve of folks like Beowulf. This is the Myth of the Great Man, the very foundation of Western society. Beowulf as a superhuman hero is the model of American society, particularly in legal theory. Real people who dare to suggest that they don’t aspire to that are despised by US law. God’s Word says this situation is evil, a blasphemous rejection of revelation.
Walking by heart-led conviction is the only hope we have for strength and direction. It requires mysticism. It requires humble repentance and the admission that we are weak and broken; it requires the confession that the Beowulf is a false image, a delusion, an anti-Christian idolatry. We don’t argue that drug and alcohol abuse isn’t a problem, but we drill down to the foundation of the problem: The utter necessity of mysticism has been denied those who need it most. The self-destructive escapism of substance abuse is built into America society in the first place, so any attempt to enforce strict laws about that abuse is unmitigated malice and spite.
“The utter necessity of mysticism ..”
You and I may come at things from different angles, but where it counts we’re very much in sync. That was a solid, insightful post Ed, thank you.
Thank you, Dear Lady.
Nothing has changed since trial by ordeal, our adversarial justice system is just a sanitized version of rooting around in a cauldron of boiling water for a pebble. You’re absolutely correct it is Evil.