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Stepping Outside of the Swindle | | | Why Break Free? | |
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< | I’m not sure that the con is harming me, so why should I break free of it? I believe, even though many will say I am misguided, that (yes, even in this current economic environment) I will make vastly more money in BigLaw than I would on my own. Moreover, while many of the wiki posts deal with the perceived unhappiness of BigLaw associates, I have friends who recently graduated from top law schools and are now working in big firms, and many of them are extremely happy. They are making a lot of money; the work is interesting; they have more free time than they did in law school. Moreover, I don’t think that BigLaw will force me to do work I don’t want to do. It has been argued in class that we should do what we want to do, produce something of value, and money will then come to us. But if what we desire is not to do certain things but instead to do any of a class of things while making a certain amount of money, then it only makes sense to pursue money directly. | >
> | I’m not sure that the con is harming me, so why should I break free of it? I believe, even though many will say I am misguided, that (yes, even in this current economic environment) I will make vastly more money in BigLaw than I would on my own. Moreover, while many of the wiki posts deal with the perceived unhappiness of BigLaw associates, I have friends who recently graduated from top law schools and are now working in big firms, and many of them are extremely happy. They are making a lot of money; the work is interesting; they have more free time than they did in law school. Moreover, I don’t think that BigLaw will force me to do work I don’t want to do. It has been argued in class that we should do what we want to do, produce something of value, and money will then come to us. But if what we desire is not to do certain things but instead to do any of a class of things while making a certain amount of money, then it only makes sense to pursue money directly. | | | | |
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< | Perhaps, though, the con is preventing me from pursuing justice. The argument I’ve heard is this: BigLaw, certainly, undoubtedly, surely, is not a just pursuit; Public interest law (or, say, selecting one’s own clients; or working in a boutique firm) is more likely to be a just pursuit. I am prone to thinking, though, that everyone is motivated by the same few ends: wealth, recognition, power, etc. The public interest lawyer is doing work that “society” respects. He is given recognition and is considered a good person. That gives him influence and power. The Corporate attorney, on the other hand, takes a more direct route. He pursues money, which can be used to buy power. (For some insight into this, see Albert Camus’ The Fall.) Thus, no one is really pursuing justice (where, say, we define ‘justice’ as the title character in “Robinson’s Metamorphosis” would: equality). So BigLaw is just an equally efficient route to what we want. | >
> | Perhaps, though, the con is preventing me from pursuing justice. The argument I’ve heard is this: BigLaw, certainly, undoubtedly, surely, is not a just pursuit; Public interest law (or, say, selecting one’s own clients; or working in a boutique firm) is more likely to be a just pursuit. I am prone to thinking, though, that everyone is motivated by the same few ends: wealth, recognition, power, etc. The public interest lawyer is doing work that “society” respects. He is given recognition and is considered a good person. That gives him influence and power. The Corporate attorney, on the other hand, takes a more direct route. He pursues money, which can be used to buy power. (For some insight into this, see Albert Camus’ The Fall.) Thus, no one is really pursuing justice (where, say, we define ‘justice’ as the title character in “Robinson’s Metamorphosis” would: equality). So BigLaw is just an equally efficient route to what we want. | | | Of course, thinking like this is what Leff predicts: the victim always thinks that he is an active participant in the con. Perhaps I have fallen prey to that trap; more likely, I have simply fallen prey to clever semantics by Leff. | | | Say we develop the confidence to step outside of the swindle and create something, on our own, of value. Our own process of creation will likely require us to become, in a way, conmen. We will build a framework; we will create value; we will con/sell. Inevitably, we will become a new ruling class. And from this position, it is hoped that we will be able to institute equality and justice. However, this seems terribly unlikely. Just as has always happened throughout history, those who reach the ruling class will likely attempt to hold onto their wealth and power. The new swindles, no matter how “justice”-oriented at the start, will simply become iterations of the cons that are currently being exposed. The world will be no better off. There will be no increase in equality or “justice”. We will have spun our wheels, hustled, sweated, strived, conned – and for what? For power? For wealth? For a vague notion of justice? If equality were really something that people want, if it were really something that can be had, then I think we would already have it. Thus, and with regret, I must conclude that I’m not sure we can make a meaningful difference. | |
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- Okay, you win. If I spend a good deal of time showing all the ways in which you have misstated me for a debater's advantage, or created your own facts, or taken some other shortcut to a rhetorical victory in which no intellectual confidence could be reposed, I am merely defending my own point of view, most likely in a biased fashion. So you have chosen one of the class of subjects on which I have to refrain from exercising the full breadth of necessary criticism. You have full marks for the expenditure of effort, and whether it represents commitment to the enterprise I leave to be decided by your own conscience. Improvement we can both judge in the future.
| META TOPICMOVED | by="JosephAvery" date="1235756092" from="LawContempSoc.TWikiGuestFirstPaper" to="LawContempSoc.JosephAveryFirstPaper" |
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| META TOPICMOVED | by="JosephAvery" date="1235756092" from="LawContempSoc.TWikiGuestFirstPaper" to="LawContempSoc.JosephAveryFirstPaper" |
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