“The devil,” Jesus said, “is a liar.” Maybe they heard him wrong. Maybe he said, “lawyer.” But then you might say, “Same thing.”
What do you call twenty lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A good start.
Why can’t the ten commandments be hung in courthouses? Because that one about lying creates a hostile work environment for lawyers.
All jokes aside, how do you take over the world without getting your hands dirty? Pass 2,000 page laws and treaties, which no one can understand and no one has time to read. Then they become law. Hire some muscle to enforce the law-voila, the world is yours.
Whatever you think of Nigel Farage (see video below) you have to give him 20 points for his sense of humor. He hates the EU, says its stripping away sovereignty from all the nations involved to make one huge, corrupt superstate. He says they accomplish this by passing reams and reams of laws and treaties that no one reads until it’s too late. I think he’s on to something.
I once worked under the Workforce Investment Act, the Clinton welfare ‘reform’ that basically booted everyone off welfare. When jobs were readily available, this was not as draconian as the current push to punish the poor, but it was pretty draconian nevertheless.
I worked with youth and my section of the law was long and torturous. I decided to master my section in order to find ways to help desperate kids, to give them a shot. No one in my region had used the Job Corps section, but there it sat in the law, bloated and obtuse. I did mange, with great difficulty, to get a few kids into Job Corps, a residential program that got them through high school, got them some job training and set them loose. A money-saver for taxpayers and a life-saver for some kids, who would likely end up in jail otherwise.
As I mastered my section, my inner anarchist repeatedly asked, “Who the heck WRITES this stuff? Do they have ANY idea what the real world is like?” The family income had to be so low in order to qualify that the family would have died long before they ever made it to my office. What lawyer in what cubicle pulled that figure out of their booty?
I’ve attended many seminars and conferences on poverty, in which sociologists and academics debate what poor people need. Then they write massive proposals with benchmarks and measurable objectives, blah, blah, blah. As I sat through these things, sketching the speaker to relieve the boredom, I often thought, “Why don’t you just ASK poor people what they need?”
I did this once. I asked pastors, poor mothers and kids what they need. The results were shocking. The pastors said they needed education, the mothers said they needed safety and the kids said they needed God!! What!! Number two for the mothers and kids was transportation. They were isolated in their rural community because 10% of households (their 10%) had no car. Pastors only knew people who could drive to their church. They could not believe transportation was what poor people needed.
What can we do about the rule of lawyers? Well, our representatives still have to vote on these laws and they are still responsible for their vote. Hold their nose to it.
As for how to help poor people, ask them. They are not mindless, drooling idiots. Ask them. You may be surprised how smart people can be who don’t have college degrees.
I know I was surprised how stupid people could be, who did.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
― Tacitus
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