"If no idea of right or wrong, of moral good or evil, exists per se or is conceived in the intellects of men, no law passed by a legislator can render any action or failiure to act just or unjust, good or bad. For there can be no reason why obeying any given law is right or wrong, good or bad, and there can be no principle on which to base the right which any one person has to govern another, if the idea of legitimacy, duty, and right is not innate or inspired (as Voltaire would have it, that is, naturally and by innate disposition arising in the minds of men, when they reach the age of reason) in human intellects." (4 September 1823)

                       - Giacomo Leopardi, Zibaldone (Z3349-50 in the first complete English
                           translation, revised edition; Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2015)

No less true almost 200 years later. And yet the so-called conservatives in this country think they can solve the problem of "crime" (really the problem of poverty) by hiring more police and enforcing laws, which will inspire nothing but resentment and ridicule. 

I almost can't wait to see them fail. 

Note: This is the first time I've quoted from Leopardi's Zibaldone in this blog. Doubtless it won't be the last.