Can we legislate morality?

       Can we legislate peace?

                        One course of action is to try legislate things like morality, and even peace. Back in the 1930's we in the USA passed three Neutrality Laws (passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President), and we all know what that got us. Hundreds of thousands died, for example. Rationing and sacrifice became routine in the USA.

                        Another course of action is more realistic, at least to me. It is called societal and cultural values that guide our many leaders from religious to business to education to government. In this course of action even the people get to vote since they are the ultimate deciders. One obvious example in this course of action is the movie industry having a ban on cigarette smoking in movies, long abandoned these days.

                        There's usually a third course of action, which might be a combination of the two preceding. Heck it could be do nothing. Said another way, support the status quo. In this course of action, it will work as long as the world does not change much.

                        What prompts this post is one article I read today suggesting more legislation to dictate behavior. 

                        Well, again, we do have choices about courses of action, and they are many if we think about it.