Resistance=Reform

Have you ever done a crime?

I have, I'm doing one now. I won't say which one, but you can rest assured that you've probably done it too.

Which begs the question; is it really a crime if the hypothetical 'everyone' is doing it? I mean surely a crime is more than just an act (or, increasingly in Britain, a thought) which breaks the written law? Surely a crime is something which goes against the interests of society?

But then, it's not that simple. Is watching a Martyr video made by a Palestinian suicide bomber going to damage society? You could argue that in many ways it could. It gives succour to those who send out confused and desperate kids to immolate themselves for a non-existent God for one thing. But then, what about when the Japanese Prime Minister visits a memorial to the Japanese dead of World War II? Is he not honouring suicide bombers?

The point I'm hoping to make is that the concept of crime and social responsibility are complex and dynamic and it would be churlish of us to say that the written law is somehow infallible and that it's our duty to abide by it simply because it exists. If that attitude had been prevalent in the past then we'd all be serfs and that would be a bad thing, right?