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| | | “This is a business in which everyone relies on representations,” Judge Day says. “Lawyers are the ones who invented spin.” She distinguishes this form of sometimes somewhat lying truth/perception management, however, from outright misrepresentation. Of the less objectionable variety, she says, “Lawyers know too much. If you know too much, how don’t you lie?” | |
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< | There’s “too much meaning”—by which Judge Day means ‘too many interpretations’ as opposed to ‘too important.’ In the context of statutes, cases, facts, procedures, and various players, “everything you say has another meaning.” Since “a real lawyer has an ethical obligation to defend his or her client,” lawyers play with meaning opportunistically: possibly using multiple definitions, varying levels of specificity, feigning or feeding particular interpretations, inducing fallacious reasoning (e.g. ad hominem), changing the story, etc. On one hand, “the posturing, the playacting, arguing over the smallest things, the narcissism, the beyond-belief egomania—it’s all part of that.” But on the other hand, “it’s inherent in the process.” | >
> | There’s “too much meaning”—by which Judge Day means ‘too many interpretations’ as opposed to ‘too important.’ In the context of statutes, cases, facts, procedures, and various players, “everything you say has another meaning.” Since “a real lawyer has an ethical obligation to defend his or her client,” lawyers play with meaning opportunistically. On one hand, “the posturing, the playacting, arguing over the smallest things, the narcissism, the beyond-belief egomania—it’s all part of that.” But on the other hand, “it’s inherent in the process.” | | | | |
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< | In the end a judge or jury adjudicates meaning by “discerning,” but even this can be fallible or flawed resonance in subjective interpretation or otherwise sort of untrue or difficult for the judged. | >
> | In the end a judge or jury adjudicates meaning by “discerning,” which is possible with reasonable effectiveness, but even this can be fallible or flawed resonance in subjective interpretation or otherwise sort of untrue or difficult for the judged. | | | The Winkers | | | The Insolent and Scared | |
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< | In contrast, Judge Day presents the “insolent and scared,” people who may have difficulty in content situations and possibly resent the systemic and interpersonal imposition of meaning. Under this heading, she includes a young counterfeiter: “You know you’re going to put them in prison, and they know you know it, and they try to look right through you … Insolent. Toward you, toward themselves, toward life itself.” And she includes a former clerk: “He says—he’s quite agitated about it—that there no longer is a nation. What is really going on is that we’re in a state of civil wars … A Generation X lawyer has thoughts like this? Well, I can tell you, just because they may be insolent, and they are scared, doesn’t mean there aren’t some very serious sorts in their twenties roaming around out there.” | >
> | In contrast, Judge Day presents the “insolent and scared,” people who may have difficulty in content situations and possibly resent the systemic and interpersonal imposition of meaning. Under this heading, she includes a young counterfeiter: “You know you’re going to put them in prison, and they know you know it, and they try to look right through you … Insolent. Toward you, toward themselves, toward life itself.” And she includes a former clerk: “He says—he’s quite agitated about it—that there no longer is a nation. What is really going on is that we’re in a state of civil wars … A Generation X lawyer has thoughts like this? Well, I can tell you, just because they may be insolent, and they are scared, doesn’t mean there aren’t some very serious sorts in their twenties roaming around out there.” It might be possible that lawyers and judges, or at least some, may be addled a bit by dealing with problem cases as much as they do, like more element/proportion focused in that way than your average bear, while other less problematic content/life is more common, and even this essay of mine has a kind of prompted angle by some of the Lawyerland source and class, and in naive wonder topic without wanting or expecting problem too much, perhaps a naive mark at the table, though not to be cynical about others, and I might have to confer with my lawyers before noting that perhaps some details of this essay were not the best content/tone and insofar as problematically effectual I would want to withdraw/fix/improve some such details. I do not think it's or want civil wars and whatnot. I prefer/like benign content/stakes, earnestness/facility to good/right/reasonable/decent/comfortable/fine. | | | They may have problems, may not believe in the system's assignment of meaning, may be difficultly subject, may be expressive or active or resigned with respect to that, and this may be observed or otherwise advocated in some extent. But they have doubts and fear for themselves— Kafka said, “In the struggle between you and the world, back the world.” Aside from more troubling contents/circumstances, some contents/dynamics in life can be observed or have characteristics in similar ways some, more or less good/right/true/understandable/coherent/graceful or this or that, often with humanism/perspective/facility/humor. |
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