HIPS: Not All Outlaws Are Bad Guys

By Bryan Hyde

Thanks to the negative connotation of a cigar-chomping gunslinger, few of us would aspire to be remembered as an outlaw. 

But the truth is that not all outlaws are bad guys.

What is the right kind of outlaw? Writer Claire Wolfe answered this question several years ago when she described “freedom outlaws.” 

She said: “A Freedom Outlaw is (loosely) somebody who cares so much about freedom that he or she will go after it regardless of any laws or regulations blocking the way. Will go after it personally. Not petition for it. Not write letters for it. Not vote for it. But GO for it.”

This is not a call to be lawless. Instead, it’s the recognition that we are buried in so many incomprehensible laws that it is impossible for any of us to avoid being a lawbreaker, no matter how careful we are.

Far more important than what some politician has put onto a piece of paper is for each of us to be able to distinguish between right and wrong.

Historically, the greatest injustices visited upon mankind are those that were carried out in the name of the law. When the people in power write laws giving themselves permission to steal, kidnap, assault, rape or murder us, the nature of right and wrong has not changed.

The most effective remedy to institutionalized wrongdoing is for courageous men and women to embrace their outlaw status and to stand and resist official injustice -- first by words, then by actions.

* Hyde In Plain Sight is written by KDXU personality Bryan Hyde. Catch his daily HIPS vignette at 7:50-ish every weekday morning on KDXU and listen to The Bryan Hyde Show weekends at 7 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday nights.