A couple days ago, I went to the library. I parked in a pay space. I was fumbling around to get change for the meter, then got distracted by something and ended up leaving the car without putting money in the meter. About 40 minutes later it dawned on me that I had forgotten to pay. So I hurriedly left the library and went to the car.

As I was going back to the car, I thought about the whole situation. It wasn’t that I had willfully refused to pay the meter; I had simply forgotten. You might say a certain part of myself — the conscious, practical left brain — had simply ceased to exist as I was lost in thought. Is it morally right for the state to impose taxation for actions not willfully avoided, but avoided because the psychological/neurological component responsible for such decisions has temporally ceased to exist? I would argue no, no, a thousand times no. This was an action I had no control over; it was simply the failure of an overworked brain.

I think until our legal system properly considers the various psychoneurosemantical issues raised by this kind of situation, we will never see true justice.

Fortunately, it turned out that I had not gotten a ticket.