Morality vs Fear of consequences
 

Say the rule of law disappeared tomorrow, and there was no way you could be charged for any crime, would you commit any? Is our reluctance (mostly) to engage in criminal behaviour more down to our inherent morality, the right and wrong we have learned from our parents and from society, or just the fear of being caught?

Note: I'm not talking about a zombie apocalypse or the aftermath of a nuclear strike or any situation where you would be expected to, even compelled to, suspend your moral compass in order to ensure survival. This has nothing to do with that. It's a theoretical tomorrow when the law disappears. What do you do? Do you take advantage of being able to commit any crime you want, or do you retain the moral codes you have (presumably) lived your life by?

Personally, would I murder anyone? No, absolutely not. Because I believe and have been brought up to believe it is wrong to take a life, plus I can see the consequences of that action: the possible children left behind, the loved ones, the ones who rely on the person I would murder. I find murder abhorrent in all cases, and while there may be some slight justification for same (Hitler, maybe Bin Laden etc) in general the idea of it is repugnant to me.

Would I rape someone? Again, not a chance. The wrongness of this act is ingrained in my psyche and I would never do such a thing.

Would I steal from someone? Not a person, no. Not like a burglary or a street hold up. Possibly from a bank. In fact, yes, if I knew I would never be punished for it, almost definitely. Banks have screwed me for all my adult life so I would not feel the same moral repugnance relieving them of millions that I would stealing a much smaller amount from a person, face to face. Does that make me a coward? Probably, but it proves I still have some moral compass I direct my actions by.

What do you guys think?

I would get ****ed up in public wherever I want and drunk drive when I feel like I'm fine. I think DUI laws would be the biggest former law broken in this scenario, granted that society is still functioning. There are a lot of things that I could do that don't conflict with my morals that I could get in trouble for.

I still feel bad about cheating on a biology test two years ago. I guess that puts me in category #1.

Vandalism and a fvckton of it.

Come to sf, frown. Public intox is practically an expectation here

there's so many people I'd love to kill

I could probably get down with some vigilante justice come to think of it.

Fucking if someone votes for rape I will personally slit your goddamn throat.

I'm tempted to do it just to piss you off.

But this response kind of ruins that, now doesn't it?

I'd have a grand old time doing various illegal but harmless [chaotic-good] things. Mostly just poking around where I shouldn't be. I've always wanted to snoop around in one of those ugly suburban mcmansions and find out what sort of sordid secrets they have. And probably steal their bourbon too. Maybe a tiny bit of arson? A small, perfectly reasonable amount of arson.

I can think of a few people who I would like to seriously injure. But they truly deserve it. (And the US justice system is utterly useless, the way they lock up nonviolent offenders for decades while allowing truly vile people go free)

It's interesting, because I've known a lot of absolutely awful people who pretend to be good, virtuous people, convincingly even (they manage to fool everyone), but it's just a performance. They're always smiling and virtue-signaling and then ****ing up everyone's lives left and right.
I suspect we all unconsciously harbor some dark, questionable urges though. Surely each person has something which would eventually rear its head if we lived in a lawless society. Especially since people habitually repress things so much.