Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

I had to rack my brain for this. Have I ever done anything in life unintentionally? The autist in me has a strong sense of justice and I have also started and withdrawn from a Bachelor of Laws at university during my life as well. I am sure I have broken laws in my life time, but I probably intended to at the time and felt remorse before, during, and/or afterwards. The only way I could have done something wrong is to have been ignorant of the law but that is never a valid defence. If had known of the law, I either would have not broken it (the most likely scenario), or intentionally broken the law or come up with some justification as to why I interpreted the law differently from the intention of the law makers.

I watched a video recently that spoke of a study where they asked neurotypical and neurodivergent people if they did the right thing in private as well as in public. The results of the study were that neurodivergent people were more likely to continue doing the right thing in private than neurotypical people, and the neurotypical people were seen as the normal ones with the normal choices. The OP of the video was horrified at the interpretation of the normalised psychology of this study, as am I.

Every thing I do in life is done with intention. The thought comes into my brain, I decide to take a certain course of action, and then I evaluate what I’ve done and how I feel about the results.

When I was younger (around eight years old), I stole a packet of skittles from the supermarket. My mum wouldn’t let me have the packet so I decided I would take it. I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway. A decade or two later, I went back to the same shop, got a packet of skittles scanned, paid for them and left them with the cashier to put back on the shelf. Between CPI increases and inflation, I’m sure I paid back more in time value of money than the initial crime. That was my way of showing my remorse and making the bad deed right again.

I feel like people say that their actions were done unintentionally, but I also feel this is an excuse when they find out the consequences of their actions have negative results (they did not intend the results but they did choose the pathway of the action).

There are some theories in ethics that evaluate the results of an action as right or wrong rather than the intention behind the action. These are called consequentialism ethical theories and include Utilitarianism and Hedonism. Utilitarianism suggests that people will choose to act based on the best outcome for the greatest number of people, whilst Hedonism suggests that people will choose to act based on gaining pleasure and avoiding pain.

Then there is ethical Egoism where people will act in their own self-interest, as opposed to Altruism where people will act in the best interest of others.

Nothing we do in life is unintentional. We always choose to act or omit. Sometimes the outcome that actually happens doesn’t align with our expected outcomes.

For now, I will leave you with this quote:

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”

Potter Stewart

Until tomorrow, KT18Ø.