Natural Law
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There are probably several different approaches to describe the life before there was government. The most logical is to suggest that people were governed by a natural law, based on their communities’ beliefs and morals. I propose that life before any government was actually quite civilized, and far less complicated, under this form of natural government.
In the days before any type of governing system, people lived together in communities with similar interests, whether they were religion, race, their lifestyle, etc. Out of these communities came their beliefs and morals, which naturally tended to govern them by creating their codes, or laws. If one man stole another man’s chicken, his hand would have been cut off. If somebody murdered someone else, their life was in turn taken. It was a simple, equal reaction for every action. A basic instinct that ruled any group of peoples, that no matter how barbaric it might seem now, was the law of the land, regardless of whether the people realized that they were being governed or not.
Unlike some popular beliefs, I do not belief that life before organized government was chaotic at all. Just because a group of elite or educated men did not sit down and write out or declare the rules to govern other does not meant that people were running around out of control. Rather, that without these born or elected leaders, everybody became responsible for their actions and the governing of others. Thus keeping everybody in check, and more or less equal. Sure, and exceptionally strong man could throw his weight around to get what he wants, but at the same time, the other ten men could just as easily control him, and even possibly over power the one.
That is simply the natural law that inevitably governs anybody living together. It is what keeps life as a whole under control. Even though there is no governing body, there is still government.