What Romantic Fools...

28 Nov 09

These excellent comments on obedience to the "Law," from an attorney and student:

"In any society, no matter how enlightened, there is always a distinction to be made between 'The Law' and 'the implementation of acts of legislation and regulation.' Indeed, what law is written so perfectly that it is fair to all people at all times?

The honorable among us wish always to be 'Law abiding.' In this context, 'The Law' is that respectable ideal that gallantly attempts to manifest justice, in human terms, in the real world.

Accordingly, there has always been an ineluctable gap between 'Justice' and what is actually written in statutes and regulations. This is an unavoidable product of attempting to render an abstract ideal into a concrete, actionable reality. The discrepancy between the perfection of an idea, and its literal implementation, is a familiar difficulty endemic to any creative endeavor. Our Constitution valiantly seeks to minimize that gap, and keep it minimal.

However, in our degenerate age, the gap between real justice and written statutes is much wider than anyone wants to admit, to the point where typically overly-voluminous, poorly-written, politically-inspired statutes and regulations, in fact, undermine the Law, and consequently all respect for it, even among the honorable!

And, as this gap continues to widen, there will be increasing confusion among the honorable, as we wrestle with the glaring discrepancy. Among the dishonorable, there will be chaos, as those who lack an internal, moral compass will see external constraints placed upon them as ever more whimsical, arbitrary, and unenforceable.

I have friends who are recent immigrants from Hungary. In their lifetimes, they have personally experienced the logical consequences of the path upon which our civilization is currently embarked. They have witnessed the aforementioned 'gap' becoming so cavernous that the law can't be said to serve anything an honorable person would even remotely recognize as 'Justice,' and is instead bent and contorted to serve only rabidly ambitious politicians and their blatantly evil aspirations.

They recall the time when their family was arbitrarily dispossessed of personal liberty, property, dignity, and, in the case of many, their very lives. Their homes and property was stolen by the state, and they found themselves brutally rounded-up and interned indefinitely in poorly-supplied concentration camps.

There was no recourse in the law! This evil was all neatly administered by glib bureaucrats and political commissars, in full accordance with 'the law," and, of course, came with endless writs, court-orders, seals, and trappings. All 'perfectly legal.'

'The law' had become so corrupt, it no longer existed in any kind of Lockean paradigm nor moral structure. My friends were powerless, outmatched by brutal Communists waving writs on their doorstep. Communists, who believe that all men, honorable and otherwise, and 'the law' too, exist only to serve them and their selfish political ambitions.

Until recently, with our wonderful Western Heritage we have jealously held fast the idea that we can depend on 'The Law' to be logical and just, and appeal to it for protection and recourse from unjust acts, even of legislation and governance. In other words, over here 'The Law' cannot be politicized.

From the current Administration however, there are dangerously mixed signals in this regard, and it seems quite correct for all of us to be skeptically concerned about our ability to count on that consecrated principle any longer working.

Chaos is only a universal vote of 'no confidence' in our Justice System away!"

Comment: Ancient Greeks reduced righteous character to the sum of four virtues. This is the precious heritage of Western Civilization. This defines the term "honorable man:"

(1) Fortitude, strength of mind, courage

(2) Temperance, self-discipline, self control

(3) Prudence, practical wisdom, righteousness

(4) Justice, your word is your bond, knowing right from wrong

Our Founding Fathers set up a system of governance based on the assumption that honorable men would ever represent a majority and that they would always be too proud and righteous to ever exchange their personal honor for bribes, in any form, from politicians nor political parties.

"... what romantic fools we mortals be!"

/John