A Moral Obligation to obey the law? Perhaps, but its mostly me avoiding Sheer stupidity. Surely if a law is enacted, it serves a purpose. Unless its a unjust one that infringes on our rights of course.
Plenty of laws infringe on rights, but still serve what is refered to as a 'compelling government interest' or some such. Take the multiple rules that prohibit people who attend schools around the country from saying 'nigger' or some such. It is technically a Constitutional violation of those individuals' rights, but it serves a 'compelling government interest' to restrict their rights. On a clearer matter: laws that establish are no-carry or non-issue areas are similarly contested as being unconstitutional. It is countered by the government interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to only apply actively to the home and the 'compelling government interest' to prevent violence that theoretically would occur if the items were allowed to be carried, loaded, on the person, at any time and in any public area. Constitutional matters always seem clear-cut until you realize that the government actively violates them and that those violations are part of what keep the peace. Then it gets buried in legalese. There are always people who will argue one way or another and matters such as this are quite common.
Looking through this thread, you have to question if 50% of the readers actually read the first paragraph of the OP...
I don't think you owe anything to the state so much as you do your fellow taxpayers. They bankroll the government in the first place, in essence, after all. In broader terms - theoretically you don't have a moral obligation to obey the law, but in more practical terms, if you feel you aren't morally obligated to not murder, rape or rob your fellow citizens, then I'd question the well being of your state of mind a tad.
Actually lol'd And no. The only moral* obligation I have toward following laws are those contained in the Torah/Talmud. We have a societal obligation. Morality is subjective.
Of course, 'rights' are generally enshrined in law; therefore the law is supreme! You will obey! Technically this is true in my home country at least, where supposedly we aspire to 'rule of law' (as opposed to Parliament, which apparently is sovereign, being the law-making body, or the Queen).
A system needs certain things to work, regardless of the morality of those things. If we want to live in this society we need to contribute to things that make it function like paying our taxes and not stealing or murdering (obeying the law). If nobody did this we wouldn't have a society so I do view it as a societal obligation .
Baring taxation (which is simply a function required to maintain a proper state), those are all legal obligations, which imply that the individual has an obligation to not cause harm to other citizens. Societal obligations imply that the individual has an obligation to act in the of benefit society at large, regardless of what negative effects this has on him. Which makes you.... A COMMUNIST!
Yes, this is my point. Whether it makes me a communist or not is up for debate but we all choose to take part in society .
The only laws I have a moral obligation to follow are the laws of physics. It's extremely irresponsible to believe in string theory.
We don't owe anything to the community. We obey the laws and pay taxes so that we can enjoy the public goods and services provided by the government, and avoid fines or imprisonment. It's beneficial to us personally to obey the law (most of the time) and pay our taxes. We do not have any obligation towards some amorphous, intangible "community".
