The constitutional State is a balance between cultural cohesion and punishment through justice. I don't kill any person just because I get angry, partly because I've been taught it's a bad thing to do, and partly because if I did, I know I'd most likely spend a lot of years in prison. So I avoid killing as much as I can.

The relationship between culture and punishment essentially defines the nature of a society. In totalitarian societies leaders don't trust the public culture, so they enforce legal standards ensuring total obedience to common laws. In a mostly free society like America or Sweden there is a tradition of trusting the community, e.g. civil society, to deal with laws and morals.

A society that regulates its citizens too much is a product of a weak culture. It's no coincidence that Sweden is the most far gone welfare society in the world, as well as the most anti-cultural and anti-nationalistic place to live. It no longer emphasizes public interaction and consequences of individual action. Instead it relies on a gigantic welfare bureaucracy, designed to ensure everyone keeps in line, or else.

That "or else" in most societies means punishment. Committing a crime therefore rests upon a risk evaluation: Can I get away with this crime without there being a notable risk involved in me getting caught? This is why a society like America wants to cut back on the number of laws and is libertarian-oriented; if individuals are free to enact more impulses without breaking any law, fewer crimes can be committed and less government force needs to be involved. This is how Ron Paul argues when he's trying to legalize drugs. If people do it and they don't hurt anyone, why not let them do it?

But there's a problem involved with the freedom argument, as often highlighted by the fellas over at Amerika.org. The less guidelines and moral standards set by public culture or the State, the less cohesive the society will be, which in turn means there's greater risk of insecurity, corruption and anarchy. No society wants that. The only way to solve this problem is to emphasize public culture and the civil society, while backing it up with government force. Traditionally this is how we must understand ancient Greek political philosophy, Roman law, Christian morality, and the development of the Western civilization into tyranny, starting with Europe.

Freedom is always worth fighting for, but only if we stand together.