CDR: Giving the Devil the Benefit of Law (was: RE: Jim Bell arrested d ocuments online)
Trei, Peter
ptrei at rsasecurity.com
Mon Nov 27 08:16:03 PST 2000
I really find AP depressing. I find the arguments that it would only
be used against 'those that needed killing' faulty, in that everyone
has a different list. There are a lot of folk who would put crypto
anarchists on their list (as well as, say, Major League Baseball
umpires :-).
"Law", and 'legal systems', when they operate correctly, do provide
a brake on unpredictable and arbitrary violence. There is no question
that they can be, and are, severely misused by the rich and powerful
to their own ends. But not all the time, and not in all cases.
Reading this thread makes me remember on of my favorite dramatic
scenes:
>From "A Man for all Seasons" by Robert Bolt.
Sir Thomas More, a lawyer.
Alice: His wife.
Margaret: His daughter.
Roper: His son-in-law.
They are discussing a man whom they regard as suspicious:
Margaret: "Father, the man is bad."
More: "There's no law against that."
Roper: "There is a law against it. God's law."
More: "Then God can arrest him."
Roper: "Sophistication upon sophistication!"
More: "No. Sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know
what's legal, but I don't always know what's right. And
I'm sticking with what's legal.
Roper: "Then you set man's law against God's?"
More: "No. Far below. But let me draw your attention to a fact.
I am not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong,
which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm
no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, there I am a
forester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow
me there, thank God."
Alice: "While you talk, he is gone."
More: "And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he
broke the law."
Roper: "So now you'd give the Devil the benefit of law!"
More: "Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law
to get to the Devil?"
Roper: "I'd cut down every law in England to do that!"
More: "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned
round on you -- where would you hide, Roper, the laws all
being flat. This country's planted thick with laws from
coast to coast -- man's laws, not God's -- and if you cut
them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- do you
really think you could stand upright in the winds that
would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of the
law, for my own safety's sake."
-------------------
There are too many Ropers on this list.
Peter
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