Legitimizing the Law
Jurisdictionary is an attempt to demonstrate what's good about American law by examining the very framework of reality, to show that truth is neither amorphous nor amenable to human wishes, that every aspect of our lives is subject to systematic analysis. We speak of science and its limitations. We speak of faith and the foolishness of those who refuse to live by faith. And, most of all, we speak of law and the elements of reason and hope by which alone law can be legitimized for a free people.
We are all of us entitled to enjoy our lives in
peace and plenty. There is more than enough wealth (in the form of natural
resources and creative intellect) to go around. There is no reason why we can’t
all of us (including those in third world countries as well as dwellers of the
inner cities in our own nation) enjoy a bountiful life without conflict or want.
Too often, however, our prosperity and joy are stolen from us by the effects of
law. Too often law is neither fair nor sane. Too often law is a handmaid to
those who have placed themselves as rulers over us, proclaiming by legislation
and court decision what's best for us, for our families, and for our friends.
Too often law is corrupt. Too often law seeks the favors of a special few and,
in the process, becomes a whore or coddles the favor of the majority and becomes
a fool. Too often law is little more than the decision of a mob. Too often law
is a tool by which elitists seek to re-make civilization according to their
private view of what's best for all. And too often we, the people, do nothing to
resist or redirect these forces that seek to steal from us our heritage of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Nor can we place the blame entirely on the
lawmakers or those who work for government, the tax collectors, property
re-distributors, war machine manipulators, judges, presidents, or town hall
clerks. The blame must lie with us, the people, for we are all too often
ignorant of the devices of those who wield the power of law over us. We do not
resist, much less redirect the forces of law. We are uncertain what to do and,
too often, despair of doing anything at all. The few who clamor for change do so
without direction, demanding this or that, insisting that their goals are far
more moral than the agenda of their political opposition. The balance totters to
the right, then swings back left, oscillating between opinions like a stupid toy
in the hands of children. The harmony of law is lost, drowned out by the din of
political divisiveness.
Where there should be certainty, there is doubt
and distrust. Where there should be unity, there is contempt and collusion.
Where there should be peace and prosperity, there is the growing threat of waste
and war.
What is missing?
I believe we have, as a people, lost sight of our
heritage. In our haste to re-make the world, to undo the perceived wrongs of the
past, and to place ourselves in control of our destiny, we are ignoring the need
for certainty. We have replaced truth with opinion and private interest. We have
decided we are wiser than our forebears, kinder, more gentle, more likely to
establish peace and a new world order that will guarantee the dream of all
mankind by concentrating power in the hands of a few. Such lunacy is not our
heritage, as I intend to show within the pages of this work.
I make no attempt to be politically correct. I
seek only to know what can be known for certain and to convey that to you as
clearly and concisely as my writing skills allow. If I seem to wander from my
premise on occasion, please wander with me, looking in the pastures and forests
along our way to get a feeling for the sense of where we are and where we should
be going. On occasion I may become rather cryptic and convey my meaning solely
by metaphor or some other roundabout way. Please go along. There are some things
that can’t be said directly, ideas that come across more clearly by allegory
and indirection. The goal is that you’ll see the certainty for yourself, that
by engaging in the analytical experiment you will prevail against the gallery of hatred
and interests, each vying to shift the
balance one way or the other, while the geometry of law, the jurisprudence by which law is
legitimized lies lost in the dusty battle.
Meanwhile, in that balance hang our lives and the
lives of our children.
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