That idea holds that small quality-of-life crimes eventually encourage greater lawlessness.
That is the real lesson of our greater lawlessness.
Behind this culture of greed and unethical behavior was a culture of greater lawlessness that can be traced back to the early 1980s when President Ronald Reagan trumpeted that government was the problem and more private enterprise the solution for greater prosperity.
In the end, such greater lawlessness means a disregard for everyone but one's own clan or tribe, a greater selfishness, and no country can remain prosperous with such a breakdown in social welfare.
The British military governor, concerned about the possibility of Spanish assaults, urged buccaneers to move to Jamaica, and the island's ports soon became their safe havens; Port Royal, in particular, gained notoriety for its great wealth and lawlessness.
"This is one of the world's great centers of lawlessness," said a Brazilian Federal Police official in Foz do Iguaçu, just a 10-minute walk across the Friendship Bridge over the Paraná River.
They come against us in great disrespect and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us, but we fight for our lives and our laws.
And while kidnappings of foreigners and attacks on oil installations in Nigeria have gained international attention, it is often those with a far lower profile who bear the greatest burden of the lawlessness at sea.
TWO years ago, I stated my belief that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program and disregard for domestic and international law poses a direct challenge to our constitutional order, and "constitutes a far greater threat than the lawlessness of Richard Nixon".
There's great nostalgia for that lawless past, but, you know, it was the fifties; there was lawlessness going on everywhere, a kind of friendly lawlessness, the kind you'd associate with James Dean, Marlon Brando, the Wild Bunch.
