In the President’s Message at the American Bar Association Journal, the theme this month is “Intolerance for Inequities.” As a member of this profession that makes a lot of money by finding inequities and claiming it can cure them, I am embarrassed. But then again, I am not your usual lawyer.
The ABA president says
The grim reality is that despite years of efforts to eliminate inequalities, bias persists against people of color, against women, against individuals with disabilities and against the LGBT community….
Her suggested response to this “grim reality” is to encourage lawyers to use Law Day 2013 to “hold events, invite speakers, form community partnerships, and engage the entire community…host town hall meetings and allow the community to ask questions of legal professionals.” (The italics are added by me, but that merely reflects the literal tone of the entire article.)
Have people ask questions of legal professionals? Could she be more openly self-serving? Could she be more wrong?
Inequality is not an American invention. It’s not a White thing. Inequality is not even a recent phenomenon; it goes back to the start of humanity. But what is a recent phenomenon is inequality-profiteering, the practice by certain groups of people to systematically perpetuate inequality in order to make enormous profits by attacking it. Inequality-profiteering is practiced not only by lawyers, but also by politicians, union leaders, public preachers, community organizers, and heads of “non-profit” organizations.
The real grim reality is that the goal of every one of those groups is to create in the minds of people a sense of victimization and dependence, because victims and dependents will rely on the leaders of those groups to “protect” them, the “sufferers of inequality.” Lawyers, politicians, etc. have learned that creating more sufferers of inequality creates more importance and profit for the inequality-profiteers. Being “for the poor” is enormously valuable to the inequality-profiteers…as long as there is a growing population of poor people.
Of course the real solution to every single case of inequality is for each individual to make himself or herself indispensable to society. If you are a victim, then learn a skill that society needs, and parlay that skill into a job, then into a company, then into being an employer of other people who have the personal motivation to take the same path.
You don’t see inequality-profiteers advocating people to start their own companies, because that would actually reduce inequality. Preaching personal responsibility and independence doesn’t line the pockets of inequality-profiteers. So don’t look to the traditional lawyers for workable solutions to the human traits that cause inequality.
I am a lawyer now, but I’ve been an engineer, a teacher, a business owner that employed people and made a software product wanted by society, and author of two very fun novels. I would not have done any of that if I had been convinced by the inequality-profiteers that I needed their help as a victim of a lower middle class upbringing.
Question: What happens to a society that is completely converted by the inequality-profiteers into a society of victims? (Hint: Look at countries that have had a “revolution of the people” in the last century.)