single header

If you want to comment online, use the Reply form following this commentary.

En Garde, Gandhi

Howell Hurst Defense vs Diplomacy

Mohandas K. Gandhi wrote in his personal autobiography, “I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.” Any modern attorney who proposed such a guideline for his profession, instead of just aggressively and expensively out-maneuvering” his opponent in a legal battle, would be laughed off the media stage today.

The subtitle of Gandhi’s autobiography is, “The story of my experiments with truth.” It’s a provocative concept for any person to embrace. Unfortunately, any lawyer asserting nowadays that they guided their life’s work by seeking truth, might surely be considered mentally unhinged by his legal associates.

Major politicians today thrive on the ability to get away with repeatedly lying. High in the public eye, they appear to inspire pride in their followers for possessing such talent in the practice. Understanding that the next media news story will delete one’s lie from the consciousness of an entire public, legitimizes the custom. Indeed, its exercise does away with the need to think rationally, let alone ethically.

It also eliminates the requirement to be honorable. Among the wealthy, honor is not sold off cheaply today. Indeed, it goes for a very high price. That is the entire point of it. Winning one’s battle through whatever means has become the accepted procedure of higher society. And lower society sells its honor cheaply by allowing higher society to decree this norm; and increasingly it mimics the habit.

As a non-believer in invisible gods, I find our own culture’s alleged beliefs have embraced the way of the legal profession. Many professing their god actually created the entire universe and all people, hedge their bet by supporting the concept of walling out people in dire need of assistance. So, out with the old golden rule. In with the new.

The logical conclusion that any god creating everything could endow his (or her) believers with the power to actually embrace the entire human race, eludes many modern believers. Apparently placing enough of one’s earnings in the collection plate suffices to replace actual follow-through in one’s professed belief.

The nice thing about being a non-believer is that one never has to compromise any falsely acquired beliefs. I personally believe that a mammoth country like ours could build its actual economic future by inviting in all others in dire need, and putting them to work, selling their produce to the world. Really honorable professions today could be based on helping recover all on the planet cast aside by the stupidity of bogus leaders.

Ten percent owning ninety percent of the golden cake, while ninety percent wrestle one another for the falling crumbs, doesn’t ring true. And golden cake owners commanding the military portends an alarming, although for them potentially profitable, future.

Instead of directly talking with our perceived enemies, some of our richest and most religiously ardent true believers presently rattle our nuclear swords in a provocative fashion. Our golden rule has come true it appears. Combining belief with greed and aggression, those who hold the gold do indeed rule.

They are simultaneously attempting through a proposed tax reform to orchestrate an increase in their gold as they endanger all our lives by their awkwardly gauche management of the most dangerous product of our 10,000-year-old earthly society.

The hinted nuclear posture of our own leadership, facing a mentally fragile enemy with a mammoth fanatical human military, is not smart thinking. It is brazen bravado. It lacks all sense of rational contemplation of the potential fallout – to us and our allies. To everyone, actually.

I wonder, are all our lawyer-leaders on both sides of the political aisle too closely aligned to the gold to speak up? Are there no lawyer-Gandhi’s among them capable of speaking truth to rash idiocy?

In the face of massive worldwide public outcry at the time, we know what occurred after our injudicious invasion of Iraq. We’re still living with its bloody consequences. Imagine the inherent bloody potential of our present military tactics on the Asian front if cool heads do not prevail.

The services of just one believer in law, capable of introducing sound reasoning into the present looming confrontation, would not be a bad idea about now. One who, we may hope, has somewhere in the past had time to read the words of his legal compatriot, Mr. Gandhi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to Blog

One comment on “En Garde, Gandhi

Leave a Reply to Milton Hardy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.