Even Bartertown Had Laws
by Gary DeMar

In post-apocalyptic Australia, “Mad” Max Rockatansky, played by Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), finds himself stranded in the desert after he is attacked by a father-and-son robbery team who patrol the skies in a pieced together airplane scavenging for anything of value that they can sell or trade. They spot Max’s caravan filled with bits and pieces of accumulated treasure in a world decimated by nuclear war. After knocking Max from his vehicle, the father drops from the plane and guides the camel-pulled jalopy to points unknown.

Max follows the thief and his commandeered goods to Bartertown, a dark oasis that serves as the last outpost of what passes for civilization. It’s the best a city can do after a nuclear conflagration. But to enter Bartertown, all weapons must be surrendered to the authorities—“It’s the law.” Max unloads his concealed arsenal from under his long coat to the astonishment of onlookers.

In the midst of a societal breakdown, there is moral order in Bartertown, even if it’s a bit off center. The absoluteness of the law comes from on high—literally. Perched high above the clutter and confusion of Bartertown, Aunty Entity, played marvelously by Tina Turner, rules from her shrouded enclave of secrecy where plots are hatched for complete control of the makeshift city, but all in terms of the law, properly interpreted, of course.

The people of Bartertown are repeatedly told to “listen to the law,” a law that Aunty created to bring order out of mayhem. Laws are simple and direct. “Two men enter one man leaves. . . Bust a deal, face the wheel.” There are no judges, juries, or lawyers in Bartertown. One suspects that they and their reputations went up in smoke with the nuclear blast that made Bartertown an inevitable necessity. In the long run, however, the law is demonic and justice capricious. “You take your chances with the law. Justice is only a role of the dice, a flip of a coin, the turn of the wheel.”

Law, if it’s going to be just, must have a fixed reference point that does not cater to the capricious nature of man. There must be a transcendent law that is higher than the roof tops. Justice Antonin Scalia gave a speech recently in which he decried the way the courts are using international law as a standard of justice for the United States. International law only pushes the issue back a notch. What are the internationalists using as the basis for law? Why not try Bartertown justice? Think how much money we would save with no lawyers, judges, and the maintenance of the courts. One of the biggest benefits would be that we would not have to endure senatorial pontificating over Supreme Court nominees.