Yes, you can legislate morality

The cell phone use while driving fracas in the General Assembly just won't go away. We knew this would be a session light on substance and the attention focused on such legislation seems to confirm that. These laws are hanging on despite research that shows other distractions are equally or more likely to cause accidents according to AAA. But there are some interesting aspects to the argument not simply related to cell phone use in vehicles...

In the Sun article (link above) Senator Nancy Jacobs, a Republican who represents Cecil and Harford counties is quoted as saying "It's legislating common sense," "People should be responsible adults and know how to behave and act reasonably. Next we're going to be telling people what radio station they can listen to and how loud they can listen to it."

I think we can all anecdotally agree that "common sense isn't so common". For instance, all I had to do during my morning commute was take a look at the number of cars weaving, not staying in lanes and cutting me off. These drivers were using cell phones. On any given trip in a car this happens repeatedly.

So from this little example (not to mention what we see in the news headlines everyday) it appears that we are not responsible or reasonable on our own. In our selfish culture we lack the morality and/or ethics to determine that using a cell phone while driving is unsafe and endangers others. The reasons for the moral decline are numerous but for one we are less religious. Religion has always been and will be a source of moral guidance for some. But without such guidance, we need paternalistic laws to tell us how to behave. The fact that there is a law forces us to comply with what otherwise should be determined by reason or common sense mainly because we fear a financial penalty/fine. Read more on a good discussion on the distinction between ethics, morals and laws.

As our culture's moral and ethical foundation crumbles and individuals are unwilling and unable to consider their obligations to others, more and more laws that regulate behavior will continue to be brought up in the State House. I don't see much of an end in sight... we'll continue to use the Legislative Session to create laws regulating behavior unless the majority of people in our State and culture begin to consider other's interests and not just their own. So yes, you can legislate morality and unfortunately, we need to.