I mean, who pays well enough for employees to risk prosecution and huge fines? The honest ones will just quit. But now that I think of it, does that in itself violate the law, or at least the nondisclosure aspect?
And I’d argue that forcing someone to spy on others, to engage in sabotage, and to lie is a violation of basic human dignity.
A lawful order by your government is not slavery.
In my opinion, responsibilities are better fulfilled by things like paying taxes and not being a nuisance.
Still, the juxtaposition of "lawful" and "government" makes me smile.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like...
I mean, many millions of soldiers died in WWI and WWII. Many were volunteers, sure. But many were conscripts. And of course, having your country conquered may also not be such a great thing, unless your government are jerks.
Anyway, I distrust all governments above the village level. I do see the argument for ~state level government. Basically, to deal with groups of jerks. National defense is arguably the only justification for national government. And that's just because there are other national governments, controlled by jerks. So it's sort of like a multi-player protection racket.
Don't be ridiculous, slavery itself can be made lawful and actually is in some countries.
You could easily argue these are violations of some human rights, but these sorts of things might be lawful orders.
And let's not forget, literal slavery was legal in America until the Reconstruction Amendments that outlawed it. Was it ethical that a responsibility of being an American citizen was that you may become a slave or a slave owner? Of course not.
In Australia we have very few constitutional or statutory rights (arguably this means we are in violation of several international human rights treaties). "You have a responsibility to your country" isn't a get-out clause from a government treating its citizens ethically. Just because something is the law doesn't mean it's reasonable or morally acceptable.
(I don't think the new legislation is a form of slavery, since that's a very hyperbolic way of phrasing things. But I disagree that "it's a lawful order" is the only factor that should be considered when discussing what is moral.)
This is just so stupid and sad.