[1735] On Laws (The Prophet, Chapter 13)

Then a lawyer said, "But what of our Laws, master?"
And he answered:

You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with
  constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,
And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are
  not sand-towers,
But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they
  would carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers?
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the
  forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all
  others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed
  and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all
  feasters law-breakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight,
  but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?
And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace
  their shadows upon the earth?

But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?
You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?
What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no
  man's prison door?
What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's
  iron chains?
And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your
  garment yet leave it in no man's path?
People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the
  strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

    -- Kahlil Gibran

In the light of recent terrorist attacks, there have been various
denunciations of fundamentalist and extremist ideologies, especially
the Islamic variety. IMHO, no matter what religion or philosophy it
subscribes to, extremism is dangerous, because it leads to conflict,
intolerance and violence.

Several articles in recent editions of prominent news sources have
attempted to analyse what drives seemingly normal young men to such
extremes, and they seem to come up with common themes:  youthful
rebellion, spiritual yearning, immigrant isolation, racial
discrimination, sexual repression and existentialist crises.

IMHO, the primary cause for these young men to blow themselves up is
none but the oldest criminal motive, that which caused Cain to slay
Abel: envy. Envy that their own orthodox beliefs, which aims at
suppressing every human pleasure and instinct, do not bring them
happiness, whereas  supposedly inferior cultures seem to be doing so
much better.

Gibran condemns those who would impose arbitrary morality on humanity
"the cripple who hates dancers", and ends the chapter ends on a
resounding blow for personal freedom of the human spirit, within the
limits of self-restraint, "tear off your garment yet leave it in no
man's path".

Raj

Links:
  Gibran bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1735.html
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From: "Mallika Chellappa" <mchellappa@>

Gibran is brilliant, as always!=0A=0AIM*H*O, the western world makes laws to suit itself=0Aand changes the laws whenever it seems the rest of=0Athe world is catching up, This is at the root of=0Aall the ills. If we had no double standards, there =0Awould be no need for frustrated young men to blow =0Athemselves up. I am not justifying terrorism or saying=0A- as one eminent journalist did -
that it is/is not=0Aa "necessary evil". But I am saying it is an=0Aobvious
corollary of the means used by the =0Acolonial powers to perpetuate their hegemony. Only=0Aa person singlarly lacking in imagination could=0Afail to see that.=0A  =0ACan the priciples of trade really supersede the=0Aprinciples of simple humanity? Is an intellectual=0Aproperty law, that allows some people to live off others'=0Alabour, really just? And what would we say of people=0Awho profess to believe in "give us this day our daily=0Abread", yet want to live off the labours of others, just=0Abecause they had the fortune to have a good idea one day?=0AThe words of Dr Madhuri Shah come to mind. She said =0A"the spark can be found in the lowest of the low", referring=0Ato inspiration. It has nothing to do with one's academic=0Aor cultural pedigree. And it is not a virtue, nor earned.=0AIt is just happenstance. And to make the rest of the world=0Apay for your happenstance for 5,10 or 20 years, or whatever=0Aperiod GATT or TRIPS think to impose, is not just.=0A=0ASmuggling is an offence, but this changes as thelist of =0Aprohibited goods keeps changing. IM*H*O smugglers are just=0Afree-traders, and they are
supplying demand.=0ABootlegging is an offence; IM*H*O the entiore tobacco=0Aand liquor industries should be declared illegal!=0AHomosexuality is an
offence! Talk about entering =0Apeople's bedrooms! While I personally feel
that homosexuality=0Agoes counter to Nature, yet, so does civilization as we know it,=0Aand it does engender perversities.=0AIn a lighter vein, let's
not forget the most appropriate=0Aquotation regarding the law: "The law is
an ass"=0A=0AThis is not to say that one should not be law abiding to =0Athe extent that one's actions affect others. Hippies living in=0Aa self-sufficient commune comes closest to Gibran's ideal,=0Aand surely, the flower-children were farseeing. We have lost their=0Ainnocence.=0A=0AMallika