Deranged Philosophical Outpourings

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Okay -- we're going to have an experiment here. First, read an analysis of a Law And Order episode.

Now, say this word out loud in response to the last question: "Lawyers"

It just feels right, doesn't it?

It may, but it's not quite accurate.

Let's get something straight here: The legal system, like any system, has avenues for abuse, ways that the system can be twisted from its intended purpose and made to fit another. One of these ways, one that amuses me to no end during L&O, is legal jargon wrangling. "But is this the correct definition of the word alive" is not a question that enters a regular lawyer's head. They've abandoned -- read carefully -- abandoned the concept of "moral" and embraced the concept of "ethical".

This is why it's so hard for most people to follow Lawyerspeak; it requires that you abandon all notions of English, word meaning, etc., and embrace definitions for words and concepts that have been created by people long dead. Law is archaic in this sense; it has no inherent overhaul system. Nobody put a clause in the constitution that said, "Oh, and we're throwing all this horse hockey out in four hundred years, so don't get too friggin' attached to anything."

Woe is us that few laws were built with inherent expirations. The assumption is that law is law. It operates according to the paradigmatic model: "The law was right before, and now it's a little more right." Which is a nice way to get through life for a single person; for a body of rules meant to operate on people, it causes problems, not the least of which is the current intellectual property mess.

People change. People change so much faster than law, and they always have. Now the change is more noticeable, perhaps even accelerated; but law has been playing catch-up since it became too hard for one person to comprehend.

And what was invented on that dark day? Say it with me again: "Lawyers!"

They're not the problem. They're part of the cause. The cause, as always, is people willing to abuse a system, not the system itself, or everybody within the system.

If there were no law, there would be no order. But because there is law, a certain amount of abuse is guaranteed.
posted by Gregory 11:14 AM