a society has always been inversely
proportional to the amount of pressure or discomfort to which the
society subjects people. That is certainly not the case. There is good
reason to believe that many primitive societies subjected people to
less pressure than the European society did, but European society
proved far more efficient than any primitive society and always won
out in conflicts with such societies because of the advantages
conferred by technology.
26. (Paragraph 147) If you think that more effective law enforcement
is unequivocally good because it suppresses crime, then remember that
crime as defined by the system is not necessarily what YOU would call
crime. Today, smoking marijuana is a "crime," and, in some places in
the U.S.., so is possession of ANY firearm, registered or not, may be
made a crime, and the same thing may happen with disapproved methods
of child-rearing, such as spanking. In some countries, expression of
dissident political opinions is a crime, and there is no certainty
that this will never happen in the U.S., since no constitution or
political system lasts forever.
If a society needs a large, powerful law enforcement establishment,
then there is something gravely wrong with that society; it must be
subjecting people to severe pressures if so many refuse to follow the
rules, or follow them only because forced. Many societies in the past
have gotten by with little or no formal law-enforcement.
27. (Paragraph 151) To be sure, past societies have had means of
influencing behavior, but these have been primitive and of low
effectiveness compared with the technological means that are now being
developed.
28. (Paragraph 152) However, some psychologists have publicly
expressed opinions indicating their contempt for human freedom. And
the mathematician Claude Shannon