Which limits are set by laws and under which conditions can you go beyond them?
"I draw the conclusion that I am accused, but I cannot find the least guilt why one could accuse me [...] the main question is by whom I am accused." (Franz Kafka, The Trial)
Which limits are set by laws and under which conditions can you go beyond them?
by Gréta Juhász, DNG Budapest/Hungary
The above quote is from the book "The trial" by Franz Kafka. The novel is about a man named Josef K., who is charged with an offense, but he does not know by whom and why. That can happen to any person at any time. Maybe not because they violated the law, but because it bothered someone. I mean, one can have a different political view, and that does not please certain people, so it is necessary to eliminate this person. It can happen in a dictatorship where a certain person wants to rule alone. Anyone who is innocently accused in a democracy can fight it, but if there is a superior person, you cannot do much.
In this book Josef K. knows all the laws, yet he does not know what he did wrong. But it can also happen that someone acts against the laws because they do not know the laws. In this case, it is not a good defense if they do not know the law, they still receive punishment. It's also an interesting case when someone knows that he/she is guilty or feels guilty, but they do not know why. This case is also described in the poem "The Sin” by the Hungarian poet, Attila József.
https://www.google.com/search?q=law&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5hsqQhZPhAhXooIsKHeuNDOIQ_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=881#imgrc=EcoEPsFdNEnh4M:
There are also bad laws that we do not like or legislators do not see that they are bad for society. If you do not have enough influence in politics, you should accept that as well. You cannot do that much about it; you can only rebel against it. But if you have influence, you can do something about it, such as talking about changing a law or abolishing it. But when a democracy becomes a dictatorship and a given person becomes independent, one should do something against it. The simple people can do the same. For example, they can choose not to make a career, so they do not support the dictatorship. They are different from politicians, they can decide to be passive and live in their privacy. One can also avoid (bad) laws, but then they should know these very well. Then one finds such ways to get out from under the law which are not legal, but are not forbidden by the law.
Posted 22. 03.2019
Hey guys!
It’s hard that some people are offensively charged even though they did nothing wrong. They don’t know if someone who always had a problem with them maybe thought that it would be nice if that person was gone and judged that person unfair. Nowadays it is often said that you’ve got political liberty but sadly that is very often not the case. Politicians talk but they do not make changes, sometimes they don’t even try to make the world a better place. If you tell your opinion to the wrong person it could end bad for you because maybe that person would sentence you just because he/she doesn’t share your view on things. Nowadays it’s so important that everybody is able to say what he/she thinks and to share it with other people. This should be normal and welcome in this world.
Madeleine Roessler - 27.05.2019 @ 09:18
Hello to Gréta, Madeleine and any people who are reading this.
Your statements are very interesting, I am glad that I could read them. I believe that if I have an opportunity, I will read the book "The Trial" to learn more. I think that it is difficult to judge a man for actions he has committed unconsciously. When someone breaks the law, because he does not know the rules, of course he does wrong, but from the point of view of the man, not the law, it is less evil than an offense committed consciously. Social norms and laws are set to make a community’s life better. Therefore, we should know them and follow them. There is a popular phrase:"Ignorance of the law is harmful". It clearly states that knowing the rules is in our interest, and when we break the law unknowingly, there’s no excuse for that. Such a situation happens to the heroines of the book "The Selection" by Kiera Cass. A group of young girls goes to a castle. They have a chance to get to know the royal family and court life, but first they have to adapt to the rules and customs of the castle, which are so different from those in their previous life. This, of course, is just one example of such a situation in literature, but in my opinion it is quite clear and easy to imagine. Some of the protagonists of this book adapt to the new rules without a word of complaint, others consider the laws unjust or unfair and try to stand up to them. Which of them will stay longer in the castle? I wouldn’t like to spoil the pleasure of reading this book, so I encourage you to read the series "The Selection". In my opinion, the law established for the common good should be respected by everyone, but it should never stand above moral principles and ethics. If the law somehow harms people, who from a moral poin tof view are not to blame, it is probably a bad law and it should be changed. The boundary between "good"and "bad" laws is thin, so I think that in life we should be guided, above all, by our conscience.
Pola Palonek - 15.06.2019 @ 18:30
Hi!
I think law shouldn’t control everyday's life, because then people will be under pressure all the time, and it will have a bad influence on their psyche. Communism was a good example of how law controlled what people were thinking and made them narrow-minded through censorship. At this time citizens could read only government-approved books, which changed their point of view on the situation in the country. At this time people lived in fear and to save their life or family they were lying about, for example, what they saw or what they did at the time when a crime was committed or at the time when, for instance, inconvenient activists acted against the ruling party.
“Give me a man and I will find the crime”, this quotation shows us what life is like when people are controlled by the penal code and how people who have power can manipulate the truth. Even if you don’t commit any crime, you can go to prison, because, for example, you are an inconvenient witness. This type of citizens' control is shown in “1984”, the book written by George Orwell, which tells us a story about living in a world completely controlled by Big Brother, who is always watching you. Every citizen is observed even in his house. The TV show called “Big Brother” is based on this book.
Gabriela Maćkowiak - 16.06.2019 @ 16:16
Hi!
Your article impressed me. In Poland (like in other post-communist countries), irrational trials were a reality. One of the greatest Polish books, “Dziady 3”, shows that everybody can be guilty. Of course, law should be respected, but we have to remember that too strict laws can change into indoctrination. North Korea, Somalia, DKR; all these countries are not “counties of law” but dictatorships.
The massage concluded in “The Trial” is timeless. This story reminds me of words by Abraham Lincoln: “After every law stands a man”.
Last year, in Poland, we had a well-known case of acquitting a man after 18 years in prison. He was sentenced after a curious trial. We can even say that the main motto of this trial was: “Give me a man and I will find a crime”.
In my opinion, Kafka showed us that sometimes we are not looking for criminals but for regulations which can make someone guilty.
Mikołaj Ziębicki - 27.07.2019 @ 16:17
HI!
We read your article, and some of us really liked it, and some of us didn't agree with some parts of it, but we all agree that it is a very important topic to talk about. Nowadays, there is no death penalty, and, at least in western countries, you can only be sentenced for lifetime. A book that shows the dangers of death penalty is called ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', in which a man is persecuted for a crime he didn't commit. He is sentenced to death by the jury, and that shows that the judiciary system isn't always fair and just as we all like to think.
Clara Danielsson - 03.10.2019 @ 13:59