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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6717475" data-attributes="member: 6799649">The names of the alignments carry some misleading baggage. 'Chaos' can mean 'random', but the Chaotic alignment is not about rolling dice to see what you have for breakfast; that compulsion would be a symptom of insanity, not a philosophical position!'Law' is also misunderstood in a similar way. It does not mean that if a society has laws, then it must be 'lawful' by definition. For example, if there was a society that had a single, written law that said 'There will be no restrictions on the freedom of any individual to make his own choices', is this a Lawful society because there is a 'law'?So how do you tell the difference? One way is, of course, to study every single written law in detail and come to a reasoned conclusion....but let's aim for something more useful. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Laws that are framed as 'You must...' generally tell individuals what they must do, whether they want to or not. 'You must go to church on Sunday'. 'You must work in one of these listed professions'. In societies like these, every activity is either Forbidden or Compulsory. This is a Lawful society in alignment terms.Laws that are framed as 'You must not...' generally tell individuals or governments what they cannot do. When it comes to Freedom, logically speaking there can only be one individual in any society who has absolute freedom to do what he wants, including killing you and taking your stuff, because two people wanting the same stuff cannot both have it. In any Chaotic society that is Chaotic Good, the principle is that you have total freedom, so long as your actions do not impinge on anyone else's freedom. In Law & Order, assistant DA Jack..er..I forget his name, but he once said on this subject, 'My freedom to swing my fists ends where your nose begins'. In a Chaotic Good society, laws are framed to preserve as much individual freedom as is possible in a society where that freedom applies to all of its people rather than just one. Any laws that enshrine this attitude, this alignment, will be framed in such a way that prevents future governments on restricting those freedoms. Like being free from unreasonable search and arrest, freedom of association, etc.Y'know, like The Bill of Rights.Having laws does not make such a society lawful. It's a rule of thumb. If the state's attitude is 'Individuals needs are less important than the needs of the state', then Good or Evil, this is the mark of a Lawful society.If the state's attitude is 'The needs of the state do not supercede the rights of the individual', then Good or Evil, this is the mark of a Chaotic society; of a Free society.As an ideal, the American state is a Chaotic state. I don't mean that it's random or supports anarchy, but that it proposes freedom of the individual as its highest ideal, and its laws are framed in such a way that the government may not take these freedoms away.Ideally, anyway. In practice, well, ask around Guantanamo Bay.</blockquote>

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