Don't worry. PANIK! A well regulated militia is an awesome force. Just look at what you will have to deal with.
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But don't despair. Emigrate to Australia. The only things we know how to regulate - and I must say we do that really, really well - are drinking sessions, smoking sessions and complaining about the weather. Oh we are also quite good at spending day after day on beaches.
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The Australian system of liberty works really well. It took me a while to work it out, when I first arrived from the UK some 24 years ago, because it's highly counterintuitive to a person brought up in a system like that of the UK or US, where freedom forms the theoretical foundation of law. In such a system, the idea (often poorly executed) is that everything is permitted unless there's a really good reason to prohibit it; And nothing is mandatory unless it is vital that everybody does it. So the expectation, constantly reinforced by society, is that when there is a rule, people will obey it.
Australia (and certainly my home state of Queensland) was founded as a jail. So the fundamental theory of law is that everything that is not mandatory should be prohibited. In any other nation, that would describe tyranny; But in Australia, we have a secret solution, unwritten and generally unspoken, that resolves this situation into one of greater personal freedom (and greater personal responsibility to society) than is found in other, theoretically more liberal, nations.
The secret is, if a rule, regulation, or law is stupid, we ignore it. Generally, this disregard for the rules applies across the board - there are loads of things that are illegal (particularly in Queensland) that people habitually do every single day, and that the police simply ignore. A healthy disrespect for the law on the mere basis that 'It's the LAW', is baked into Aussie culture. The question is not 'Is this legal', it is 'is this fair'. Society demands that everyone gets 'a fair go'; and by and large they do. There are failures and injustices, of course; But they are no more common than the failures of other systems that (on paper) are so much freer.
People here generally don't bang on about exercising their rights, because they have none. But as that is usually code for "I am going to be an arsehole, but the law can't stop me so fuck you", it's not a big loss. A person arrested in Queensland doesn't have the right to remain silent; Doesn't have the right to a lawyer; and doesn't have the right to a phone call. But unless they have seriously pissed off the desk sergeant at the watch-house*, most likely they will get those things. And a cup of tea.
Under Queensland law, an arrested person MUST provide their full name and address when asked. Other than to provide those details, you do have the right to silence, but police are not obliged to inform you of this. An arrested person has the right only to be told what offence they are charged with (if they have been charged); And to know the name, rank and station of the officer who arrested them.
In the past three decades, many of the more draconian laws here have been repealed - you can no longer be arrested for walking more than three abreast on a footpath, for example. But at the end of the day, it's not as important as it sounds to repeal the restrictive laws that remain, because most of the time, most of the public and police simply disregard them. The overarching principle is simply 'don't be a cunt'.
*A really effective way to do this is to loudly and persistently claim that you know your rights and are entitled to these things. A lot of people here watch far too much American TV for their own good.
