More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
-Robert Bolt, A man For All Seasons-
One of the reasons - perhaps the reason, I no longer support so many of the causes I did as a younger and more innocent man is that they so often succeed in making things worse. Civil Rights, Feminism, and so many other causes fundamental to liberty, equality and fraternity have been corrupted and have adopted the furious fundamentalism they seem to oppose. It's as though a lifetime of being a liberal was for naught when I hear feminists declare that an accusation of rape is so likely to be true that no burden of proof is needed for conviction. The righteousness of the cause, whether it's fighting racism or advocating for public safety, is often enough to quell the qualms of the critic concerned about what we have left when we are all perfectly safe but need constantly to prove our innocence. Let the innocent hang as long as no guilty man shall go free.
The righteousness of the cause. I used to contribute to a gun control forum in the early days of the internet. I left because of bogus figures like the 4400 children allegedly killed by guns in a week. I couldn't pry it from their cold fingers. It's only a small example of the intransigent extremism saturating the moral market. Is it really true that no man accumulates wealth without taking it away from someone else? It's not worth questioning that indefensible assertion, the Bernie Boys will stomp you with your Bernie Boots after breaking your shop windows.
It's not just the liberals of course. Often it's the zealotry of prosecutors and law enforcement putting liberty at risk for the sake of getting after the devil. Take the disturbing case of Philadelphia police sergeant Francis Rawls, suspected of possessing child pornography. His computer was found to be running Freenet, which can be used for the purpose, and there were indications of certain illicit searches. Probable cause? yes, but the proof? The illegal images, if there are any, are encrypted on his hard drive and to be short, he's being kept under lock and key until he agrees to forfeit his constitutional right to due process and against being forced to self-incriminate. Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't and we don't care about the 5th amendment because we have to protect the children or the 4th because we're afraid of drugs and terrorists.
It's the constitution, boys, not a roll of Charmin. It's a cornerstone of our claim to be a just society, a government of laws and not of moral crusaders.
I wonder how ling it will be before I put my passport where my mouth is and get the hell out of this miserable country while I still can.
There is a tendency among ALL human beings to engage in all-or-nothing-thinking, to extrapolate from the ONE to the MANY, and to dismiss a valid cause over a single excess. Each instance of an over-reaction, or a false accusation, does not negate the need to investigate each case on its own merits. Hysteria in the news is not the same as due process.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for myself, I intend to cast my vote FIRST, and await the result, before packing my bags.
Keep in mind that I've been talking about disappearing into the jungle since Reagan was elected and I'm still here, But well put and succinct as usual.
ReplyDeleteI'm just starting to think it's more than a tendency but something nearly universal and inescapable. I think zealotry and excess are expanding faster than ever and that this time is like some other times when the whole world or at least a whole country goes mad. Those things don't end well.
We have candidates campaigning against some straw "establishment" that translates to law and order and due process or science or the institutions of democracy -- and even the basic tenets of civilization itself. And of course any thing is justified by the rage, the fear, the paranoia and the egotism. Anarchy or a government of a "dear leader" or worse lurks in our various ideas of fixing what may in fact not be broken. We're all at war with each other and somewhere the dust of Hobbes is stirring out of his sleep, like Cthulhu in the deep.
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater, 1964 Acceptance Speech
ReplyDeleteI always accepted the philosophical truth inherent in those words. Until...
I realized the meaning of liberty and justice depends on ones views on ethics and morality, life experiences, religious indoctrination (or lack thereof), culture, and probably more.
Guess that's why we need laws, to protect the rights and liberty of all, and, to administer appropriate penalties on those who disregard the law.
Back to point one...
and, many seem unconcerned.
It's a wonderful life. Isn't it?
All very true and very well said. Spiro Agnew used that quote too and he was a crook. Anyway I lean toward moderation because we're all fallible and do less damage that way when we screw up.
ReplyDelete