When I was young, most people of moderate or better means knew a lawyer or two. They were members of the community and interacted with the community. But that was a world without widespread heating and A/C, a world where people still sat on porches and walked in their neighborhoods, where a lawyer would give a little simple free advice just as the neighborhood plumber and carpenter would do.
I got older and my legal questions became more complex just as the world had become more complex but, more than that, the family and neighborhood lawyers were becoming scarce. One may feel wronged or cheated but mostly one puts that feeling aside, perhaps a life lesson learned, and moves on. Rarely is it worth the legal fees to just find out if indeed one was wronged, legally so, especially when KNOWING that for sure presents the dilemma of what to do next. If one can’t afford to pay a lawyer to pursue the matter, then perhaps one is better off not knowing the answer to begin with.
I went to law school. I see the world differently. I have always seen the world differently, through the eyes of those who taught me right from wrong, through the lens of those who taught me civics and about this country’s founding and its constitution. Law school merely honed that to virtual instinct. Whether I’m dealing with a retail clerk, contractor, doctor, or government agent; my skin may crawl or my hackles may go up or perhaps I’m just suddenly aware I’m paying very close attention. I know my instinct has kicked in and something is amiss. I could find out if I’ve been legally wronged in some way within minutes but this used to happen a dozen times a day, often more than that.
I firmly believe that our fundamental laws, our constitutions (state and federal) and many of our laws represent the absolute minimum needed for us to be functional as societies. Their stability and understanding provides a basis within which we interact. Here’s the problem for lawyers. If one believes that but can’t even redress their own wrongs and notes a dozen or more of those each and every day, a lawyer can’t help but nearly drown in cognitive dissonance. I spent years "picking my battles" and finding ways to ignore, deny, or otherwise deal with that cognitive dissonance just to get through day to day life and I know that many of you have joined me in recent years.
Ignorantia juris non excusat. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. The “law imputes knowledge of all laws to all persons… assumes that the law in question has been properly published and distributed”. Of course, it was never possible for the average person to know ALL of the law but it was feasible for the average person to know or figure out the laws affecting every day life if one had a decent basic education. Then came the printing press and, much more recently, the wonders of word processors and personal computers. Legislators can draft and pass reams and reams, gigabytes of laws, and publish them electronically. Nearly every one of those legislators took an oath as a lawyer to protect and defend the constitutions and yet they pass gigabytes of laws with utter disregard for fundamental constitutional protections and requirements. The average lawyer can’t keep up and in compliance with the laws affecting them personally, just look at the vetting process for new members of the federal administration to see how many of them have violated any number of laws – a phenomenon that goes back to those maids of yesteryear who were being paid under the table without taxes being withheld and reported.
The result is we all live in a world where we can’t possibly keep up with all the new laws, can’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s, where it isn't possible for the laws to even be "properly" published and distributed because that inherently requires allowing for time for everyone to keep up, to absorb the information and change their lives to conform to new laws. Fewer and fewer people even try and that creates cognitive dissonance. One wants to believe they are basically a decent and law abiding citizen but it is no longer even possible so one trundles through life and must attempt to resolve the dissonance. Society is being split into parts. There are those who believe in the old fundamentals and those who would ignore them in favor of complete and rapid change. Now we are in cultural dissonance and information overload just from the new laws that so seriously impact our daily lives.
I firmly believe that most Americans believe in the US Constitution and the concept of fundamental and protected rights. But it is difficult to respect the fundamental rights of others when those may violate other firmly held beliefs of the individual so many support unconstitutional laws that are in harmony with those other beliefs and then find ways to resolve the dissonance created by that support. I suspect we have all been in precisely that situation from time to time.
If you are amongst those who would continue to support our basic and fundamental concepts of American society, I urge you to get back to the basics of understanding fundamental rights and what the US Constitution is all about. Learn to see the world differently. From that new perspective, analyze your choices of actions and what laws and changes you support. Confront your own cognitive dissonance.
Our founders pointed out that an educated and informed citizenry is an absolute necessity to preserving the America they were attempting to create. We’ve never actually attained that so you will need to share your new vision and you will have to do it in a way that doesn’t polarize you with those in cognitive dissonance overload. It’s a tough job but more necessary than ever before. Take them back to basics too and then build from there.
We now live in a global society and we must choose whether to protect our fundamental rights while making some choices to responsibly participate in that global society or simply have changes foisted upon us without regard to those fundamental rights. It simply isn’t feasible for the US to opt out. I believe we can protect the fundamentals that are important, key, to us while making the changes the world will force upon us but it is only possible if we take our obligations as citizens seriously.
You see, there is a little climate meeting going on right now on the other side of the world and the changes are already being made with or without our input. Much bigger changes will be coming and quickly. Your rights to life, liberty, and especially property WILL be impacted.