This is a VERY important book. I read it in 1996. If it had been read and heeded by our elite political class, we might not be in such a frightening situation today. Government is now so remote from our simple, basic humanity that it is no longer an entity that serves us. Rather, it acts like some extraterrestrial power that has enslaved us. Lawyers make up government. They wright the laws and churn out the rules. To quote Mr. Howard (himself an attorney), "It's (government) actions have an arbitrary quality. It almost never deals with real life problems in a way that reflects an understanding of the situation." (pg. 9).

It seems to be fallen human nature to make rules as precise as possible. Rule making in the attempt to reach a universal certainty for every possible situation has become almost a religion for The Control Class. Their striving for certainty has built a "legal colossus unprecedented in the history of civilization." (pg. 10). And, "The more precise the rule, the less sensible law seems to be." (pg. 15). The modern legal ethos is: "The words of law will tell us exactly what to do. Judgment is foreclosed not simply by the language of the words. It is foreclosed by the belief that judgment has no place in the application of law." (pg. 18). Lawyers focus on legal language as if it were an oracle. They can't act without it's permission. I could go on and on with the quotes. There are too many great ones to type in here. I would be printing the whole book and would end up in big trouble. Well, what the heck, maybe just a few more.

Vaclev Havel compared communist societies to western ones and, "Modern regulatory law resembles central planning. The failing is the same: Rigidity of legal dictates precludes the exercise of judgment at the time and place of the activity." (pg. 21). And, "The Soviets tried to run their country like a puppeteer pulling millions of strings. In our country, the words of law are like millions of trip wires, preventing us from doing the sensible thing." (pg. 21). At the beginnings of this mess, some reasoned that massive laws would protect us from government bureaucrats and petty tyrants. But just the opposite occurs! "Looming over us is a larger, more troubling paradox: The quest for protection through certainty results in arbitrary power." And, "When laws cannot be complied with, individual officials, . . . have complete power." (pg. 32). How about this one: "When the law loses it's connection to common sense, no internal compass can guide people as to right and wrong." (pg. 40). There are numerous quotes from Justices and philosophers. Topics such as "diversity", "loopholes", "parsing", "logical intrigue", "government convulsions", "rationalism", "socialism", "culture of resistance", "the velvet trap of process", "handing out rights like land grants", "risk aversion", "discrimination claims", "entitlement", "political correctness", "thought crime", and "the welfare state".

Actually, you should probably read this book's 187 pages every weekend for the rest of your life! You wil either go insane over the frustrations of life, or else you will turn into the next Solomon!

--RPC, Monday May 4, 2009