Here is an inter­est­ing Opin­ion arti­cle from The New York Times about the recent anti-​gambling leg­is­la­tion passed by the G.O.P. I light Murray’s insight into how and why cit­i­zens obey the law: not because they have to, but because they want to.

If a free soci­ety is to work, the vast major­ity of cit­i­zens must reflex­ively obey the law not because they fear pun­ish­ment, but because they accept that the rule of law makes soci­ety pos­si­ble. That reflex­ive law-​abidingness is rein­forced when the laws are lim­ited to core objec­tives that enjoy con­sen­sus sup­port, even though people may dis­agree on means.

And then, an insight into what this type of gov­ern­ment leads to:

For mil­lions of Amer­i­cans, our day-​to-​day rela­tion­ship with gov­ern­ment is increas­ingly like paying pro­tec­tion to the Mafia — keep­ing it off our backs while we get on with our lives.

• The G.O.P.’s Bad Bet

Via Daring Fire­ball