Prometheus 6

This essay explains my understanding the attitudes one can take toward laws in general. I think the reasoning in it has bearing on the comments to this post.

I wrote it in 1995. I wrote a lot in 1995.

There's a channel on my local cable system on which various
colleges and universities present distance learning programs. One
morning I was flipping around the channels and came across
Business Law 1 from Regis University. It was the first class of
the course, and the teachers did a brief overview of why law
should be studied relative to business, or at all.

What an enlightening discussion.

Key things I got out of it:

1. Law is important because we are affected by it at every
   point
2. Getting to understand how the law works can change it from an
   adversary to a force with which you can enhance your
   business
3. When studying law, the answer you get isn't as important as
   the analysis you do, because the results of applying legal
   principals depends on the actual events you apply them to
4. Law consists of two parts. . . the part that defines rights
   and obligations, and the part that tell how to invoke the first
   part (statuatory and procedural)
5. Law and ethics do not coincide, and law is enforcable while
   ethics are not

The reasons these were key statements to me is:

1- This one is obvious

2, 3- These points indicate that folks are actually being
instructed in creative interpretation of the law. . . it was said
"when the facts change, the law changes" on the program. What
that means is that, since folks are being taught to interpret the
law in the best possible way for their business, we couldn't
expect anything from affirmative action laws other than what we
got. . . a twisting of the intent into whatever cost the
companies least to implement. . . In other words, quotas rather
than a real analysis of job requirements and elimination of bias.
It means we can't expect anything from civil rights legislation
other than what we got. . . a twisting of the laws intended to
insure minorities are protected from the tyranny of the majority
into assurances for the majority that the minority will never
have anything they don't.

4- The law can state you have rights, but that does you no
good (literally!) if you don't know the method of invoking the
law.

5- The law is not going to make sure that the morally correct
thing as you see it will happen. At best, it will make sure that
the legal thing will happen. . . but since "when the facts
change, the law changes," there's no way to know what that is in
the final analysis.

More thoughts: a major complaint Black folks have is "as soon
as you learn the rules, they change them." Yes, because Black
people knowing the rules is a new fact, and when the facts
change, the law changes.

We black folks tend to think of law as absolute. . . it's
equally binding on everyone. As you can see, though, to the
mainstream society the law is NOT absolute. What is actually
absolute is the attitude you take toward the law.