As I understand it, if you want to do something and check out the laws and, if you find that the law permits you to do it, that's merely business as usual. So, when you read the law and identify that the government has no problem with your doing what you seek to do, you cannot join the exalted circles of those who have found loopholes.
So, what gives you admission into this exclusive club? It is when you know that there is a law that has specifically been put in place to make it illegal to do what you want to do that you should lick your chops and go through the clauses of that law to find the goldmine of a loophole. If you find it, create a way in which you can exploit it, and manage to do exactly that thing which the government was trying to ensure that you do not do, why you are a veritable Einstein and the envy of all your colleagues.
So, what's to be flummoxed about, you ask? Suppose there is a security system in a bank and you find a loophole in it and rob the bank. You may well be a genius to your other colleagues in the business of ensuring that banks are not overburdened with cash. You cannot expect Society at large to give you a medal for your accomplishments, though. Nor does the hacker, who finds loopholes in cyber-systems and steals data, find himself the darling of Society (except as a whistle-blower, I suppose, in which case his motives are supposed to be altruistic.)
And, like the naive innocent that I am, I assumed that ingenuity in subverting the legal intentions of government, in order to benefit yourself, would invariably lead to the person being considered immoral. (Even I am not naive enough to assume that it will invariably lead to punishment!) In other words, you may seek and exploit loopholes in laws, you may even benefit from it but the last thing you should want to do is boast about it because it should lead to social aversion to you.
What do I find, though? You DO boast about it, others praise you for it and, if you do it successfully and often, you may even get a Padmashri for it. It is as though it is a contest between you and the government, the government doing its best to not allow you to do something, and you doing it despite the government's efforts. Upon your success, the government is supposed to wryly smile and congratulate you sportingly. If, on the other hand, it retrospectively plugs the loophole and takes you to task, you AND Society get outraged at such unsporting behavior. As though it's all a game of T20 and the law was not made with the interests on Society in mind and your exploiting loopholes is not subverting the Social needs that the law was ostensibly put in place to safeguard.
Is it a wonder that I am flummoxed?
Truly the Law is...err...a law unto itself!
