This is because they believe that in countries governed by the rule of law, the laws must be available, because ignorance of the law is no excuse. The laws must be available for all to read because in a democracy, the laws are owned by the people, the government works for us. We own the law. We must know our rights and our obligations if we are to be an informed citizenry. Democracy depends on this.
When Gandhi-ji was in South Africa, he was much more than just a lawyer. He was also a publisher. He sought to change the world through the courts and petitions, but also in the social media of his day. He was a blogger, a news syndicator. He was cutting edge high-tech in his use of publishing technology.
When he opened the Phoenix Ashram, the very first thing they did was dismantle the printing press in Durban, load it into four wagons, each one of which was driven by a team of 16 oxen, and they hauled that press into the wilderness.
When they got to the new site of Phoenix, there were no buildings yet. The very first building they made was to house the printing press, they camped outside until that was done. At Phoenix, everybody learned to typeset, everybody spent time with the printing press.
This was what Gandhi-ji called bread labor, doing something with your hands every day. Genesis 3:19 says that “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” and that became a central tenet of his philosophy. Gandhi-ji said:
“Intelligent bread labour is any day the highest form of social service. For what can be better than that a man should by his personal labour add to the useful wealth of the country? ‘Being’ is ‘doing.’”
That is a remarkable statement, one that we should all heed. We must all do bread labor, and we must all also become what Gandhi called public workers, people working to make our society better, what Gandhi-ji calls “the lesson of service instead of self-interest.” Bread labor and public work were two foundations of Gandhi’s philosophy and those teachings motivated and inspired people to unite around a common goal.
Our world today is a perplexing place. I worked for 15 years in Washington, D.C. and I have never seen our government in such disarray. The United States is not the only country to face such chaos, though we certainly appear to have brought chaos to a previously unimagined level.
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