Legitimizing the Law

    Jurisdictionary is an attempt to demonstrate what's good about American law by examining the very framework of reality, to show that truth is neither amorphous nor amenable to human wishes, that every aspect of our lives is subject to systematic analysis. We speak of science and its limitations. We speak of faith and the foolishness of those who refuse to live by faith. And, most of all, we speak of law and the elements of reason and hope by which alone law can be legitimized for a free people.
    We are all of us entitled to enjoy our lives in peace and plenty. There is more than enough wealth (in the form of natural resources and creative intellect) to go around. There is no reason why we can’t all of us (including those in third world countries as well as dwellers of the inner cities in our own nation) enjoy a bountiful life without conflict or want. Too often, however, our prosperity and joy are stolen from us by the effects of law. Too often law is neither fair nor sane. Too often law is a handmaid to those who have placed themselves as rulers over us, proclaiming by legislation and court decision what's best for us, for our families, and for our friends. Too often law is corrupt. Too often law seeks the favors of a special few and, in the process, becomes a *** or coddles the favor of the majority and becomes a fool. Too often law is little more than the decision of a mob. Too often law is a tool by which elitists seek to re-make civilization according to their private view of what's best for all. And too often we, the people, do nothing to resist or redirect these forces that seek to steal from us our heritage of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
    Nor can we place the blame entirely on the lawmakers or those who work for government, the tax collectors, property re-distributors, war machine manipulators, judges, presidents, or town hall clerks. The blame must lie with us, the people, for we are all too often ignorant of the devices of those who wield the power of law over us. We do not resist, much less redirect the forces of law. We are uncertain what to do and, too often, despair of doing anything at all. The few who clamor for change do so without direction, demanding this or that, insisting that their goals are far more moral than the agenda of their political opposition. The balance totters to the right, then swings back left, oscillating between opinions like a stupid toy in the hands of children. The harmony of law is lost, drowned out by the din of political divisiveness.
    Where there should be certainty, there is doubt and distrust. Where there should be unity, there is contempt and collusion. Where there should be peace and prosperity, there is the growing threat of waste and war.
    What is missing?
    I believe we have, as a people, lost sight of our heritage. In our haste to re-make the world, to undo the perceived wrongs of the past, and to place ourselves in control of our destiny, we are ignoring the need for certainty. We have replaced truth with opinion and private interest. We have decided we are wiser than our forebears, kinder, more gentle, more likely to establish peace and a new world order that will guarantee the dream of all mankind by concentrating power in the hands of a few. Such lunacy is not our heritage, as I intend to show within the pages of this work.
    I make no attempt to be politically correct. I seek only to know what can be known for certain and to convey that to you as clearly and concisely as my writing skills allow. If I seem to wander from my premise on occasion, please wander with me, looking in the pastures and forests along our way to get a feeling for the sense of where we are and where we should be going. On occasion I may become rather cryptic and convey my meaning solely by metaphor or some other roundabout way. Please go along. There are some things that can’t be said directly, ideas that come across more clearly by allegory and indirection. The goal is that you’ll see the certainty for yourself, that by engaging in the analytical experiment you will against the gallery of hatred and interests, each vying to shift the balance one way or the other, while the geometry of law by which law is legitimized lies lost in the dusty battle.
    Meanwhile, in that balance hang our lives and the lives of our children.

... Dr. Frederick D. Graves
... Jurisdictionary