Some Theses on Law...

The problem of law is that we cannot trust our 'authorities' to enforce it, because we have no assurance that these authorities will themselves follow the law.

The problem of law is one of pure practicality - no one is willing to follow the law when it comes to a practical choice between following the law and doing something one perceives as good for oneself or one's loved ones. Who among us would not run a red light when it was a matter of getting our child to the hospital as quickly as possible?

The problem of law resides in its implacability, for there is no law so universal that one cannot find a situation where one could find an exception to it, and so there are no laws 'as given' or 'as such' that exist indubitably and throughout all time.

The problem of law is therefore one of recognition - how do we recognize the right thing to do, if what is right changes according to the situation? Lying is wrong UNTIL the Nazi officer comes to our door and asks if we have any Jews hiding in the house.

The problem of law resides not so much in particular actions, but in styles of living. One could never violate the laws of one's community and yet still be a bad person, for how does one know that one's whole community is violating a law greater than the laws it has created?

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Utopians (like myself) assume that every problem has its root in psychology. Fix the conditions (poverty, war) that give rise to trauma and you will find that all other ills of society - fundamentalism, intolerance, hatred, greed, etc. - will disappear. Yet this thinking may overlook something very important - no matter how perfect you make the social conditions of life, to where there is no pain, no hunger, and no loneliness, you will still not eradicate banality or stupidity.

Is all stupidity trauma? Is all banality trauma? That would be absurd - I would be asserting that people are stupid and/or banal in proportion to the amount of suffering they have had in their lives. That is palpably not true... or is it? I would have not thought it was true until I heard the stories of many of my classmates, who I assumed were stupid (that is, unthinking) simply because that's how they were, but then I realized that the conditions of their family lives were so bad that they simply didn't have time to think, because they had to deal with other more pressing things. (I suppose this interpretation is based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs - these people are not able to achieve self-actualization because they have not had all their more basic needs fulfilled).

Let's look at what is required in order to be non-banal:

Hmmmmmmmm, is all I have to say, for now...