I once heard the argument that all laws, at their most boiled-down-to-purpose, are to prevent violence. It’s an interesting point. It may not seem like it at first, but the more that you roll back “the why” to each law the more you start to see that the argument has a case.
jay·walk
/ˈjāˌwôk/
verb NORTH AMERICAN
gerund or present participle: jay-walking
cross or walk in the street or road unlawfully or without regard for approaching traffic.
"you jaywalked across a busy four-lane street"
e.g. I jay walk across the street with no regard to anyone, you’re driving and you hit me, now we have to fight. So, we make jay walking illegal as a way to prevent violence—ya dig? You do that kind of thinking a couple of times with some laws and it starts to make a little more sense. The reason we want to prevent violence seems pretty up front. It’s a pretty basic characteristic of humans to dislike violent engagements. Survival of the tribe meant not being murdered by the other tribes—or whatever else lies out there in the blackness beyond the campfire. Further, it stands to reason, that it’s better to be good at surviving violent encounters. We want to be good at surviving and do well with fighting, because death was scary; and experiencing death in a most horrible way had to be considered at the top of everyone’s priority list of Things to Avoid. Know why? Because death matters.
Hollywood exposed us to fraudulent tough guys and it perpetuated on and on until we—somehow—ended up with the tough guy act where death doesn’t affect them. I think that act started to fall apart in 1993 when the UFC put everyone on notice that someone’s act might be bullshit.—and equally, someone else’s act might not be bullshit at all. Now , twenty-seven years later and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (the martial art that won the first UFC in 1993—and basically shocked everyone) is seeing record numbers of student enrollment. All because it’s better to be good at surviving violent engagements so as to avoid death.
Now I don’t mind a tough guy. As a matter of fact, I believe them to be valuable members of society. After all, nobody loves a warrior until the enemy is at the gates. But we really should drop the “death don’t matter” act, because it does matter. Throughout history, cultures have treated the burial with the utmost respect. It was a time to honor the dead. There are as many different takes on funerals as there are cultures, but perhaps none more famous that Norse and their funeral pyres. The Ynglinga saga describes the process like this:
Thus he (Odin) established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time.
Death mattered then. There was no tough guy act back then. The Vikings didn’t tolerate things like that, they had the talk shit, get hit rule. Combine that with the notion of Valhalla upon death, and the possibility of creating such a warrior legend that a stone monument might be put up for you, living life victoriously to die honorably was the goal. But, not everyone is—or can be—a Viking. So we have laws. We have laws to prevent violence. While I think we can all agree with that we still need to reinstate the importance of death, honoring the dead, and living life with such purpose that after you die they should erect a monument of your likeness. Death matters. Just as much as life matters. But what’s more is we should be striving to live a life worthy of a being remembered after death. Make your death matter.
