Is it possible to have a society with fewer rules or with no rules at all?

Question

Is it possible to have a society with fewer rules or with no rules at all?

Answer 1

If all of us would take care of all others and not ourselves, that would be a perfect society.

Therefore, there could be one main rule: Be selfless, and take care of all others!

:)

Answer 2

No Society is governed by rules.  regardless if these rules change every second day they still need to exist if society is too.

Answer 3

fewer, yes.  no rules, I don't think so, not as a practical matter.

When you think about a society without laws or government, what I suspect would happen, is very quickly people would recognize that if they work together, they can improve their situation.  Working together will involve an understanding between the cooperating parties, which very quickly becomes a set of rules.  Then, as in many of the libertarian conundrums, you have the problem of people getting a free ride on something the cooperating parties develop.  For instance, in a society without laws or rules, pirates and looting and violence would become a problem.  So you might form a militia, or private army.  But if there are people around you, benefiting from their proximity to your army to get safety for free, you'll tire of paying the soldier's salaries and them freeloading, and pretty soon you will invent the equivalent of a tax for public safety.  And down the road you will go, toward rules and laws.

If everyone felt more strongly about total freedom than about safety, and efficiency, than I think you could minimize the laws and rules, but I doubt you would have any kind of substantial population density without some rules and laws.

Answer 4

In a perfect world..SURE....Why not??   But lets face it,,, We are far from perfect... There are very bad people in this world,,and with no rules or laws, nothing would stop them from,, Or punish them for misdeeds.

Answer 5

Few or no rules is called anarchy.  It doesn't work well or last very long.  Someone sets themself up as king, ruler, boss, etc, and starts making rules to benefit himself or his friends.  Someone else doesn't like them, and either leaves, overthrows the king, or dies trying.  Revolution eventually comes along, and new rules are established to try to prevent the previous mess.

Answer 6

It's a little bit of a double edged sword.

On one end, it is possible for people to naturally have "law and order" without having actual laws. The crime and conflict that we see in society is a result of class antagonism(s). Class antagonism is basically a power struggle between the upper, middle, and lower classes.

The upper class has a majority of the wealth and power, and makes all of the rules. It is also makes up the smallest portion of the population. The upper class's main goal is to maintain its status and power over the other classes by making laws and using agencies to enforce the laws, in order to protect itself. It also at a basic level, makes and enforces laws designed to protect the lower classes as well.

The middle class has wealth, but limited to no power. The main goal of this class is to keep from going to the lower class, and maintaining its status, unless it can move up to the upper class.

The lower class has no wealth or power. This class makes up a majority of the population. They compete/struggle for the wealth that trickles down from the upper classes. This struggle for power, wealth, and status is why many in the lower class are so prone to commiting "petty" criminal acts and fighting amongst eachother. That's the point where racism, sexism, ageism, "crabs in a barrel", etc. come into play.

Historically, the middle class has usually always lead political/social revolutions, while the lower class has done a majority of the actual fighting. The middle class then becomes the new upper class, the former upper class becomes the new middle class, and the lower class goes back to its place in the heirarchy.

As long as this struggle exists then there will always be conflict, and a "need" for strict social laws. That's not the way it has to be, or should be, but that's the way it is.

On the other hand, even if there were no classes at all, there would still be conflict to a degree, becasue of the human element.

-Peace-