Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

i really like samuel's argument here. in the spirit of debate, i wonder if we couldn't argue that class is overdetermining everything here. the notion of law in greece and rome might not be attributed simply to class. the laws erected in mesopotamia, ditto; the laws in pre-colonial africa, ditto. i guess we have to decide on how law is defined, but the earlier attempts to link them to divine commandments or natural law might be read as reflecting more than simply class dominance.

can't we say as class divisions arose, along with other social factors, notions of social value also changed. anything to avoid direct determinism.

i'm thinking that the real strength in your argument, samuel, has to be based on social changes since the nation state became dominant, and is even more the case as we get closer to the present day when your warnings about global order ring true.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019 1:50:58 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

In the past and present, laws reflect the social structure of a society essentially. Even when the language the laws are written in is neutral, the social structure of the society affects their application e.g. the New Deal or GI bill in the US. Laws in all religions tend to initially reflect such power relations too although forces of social struggle have compeled them to change over time. Any discussion of law in the abstract can be misleading, even though useful for initial conceptual understanding. That is why Rienhold Niebuhr argued in "Moral Man and Immoral Society" that without balance of power in society,  there will be no justice. Maybe some lawyers look at the law just in the abstract but it is important to also understand the social structure of society before just elevating the rule of law over and above society. The idea of the rule of law itself came into existence as part of class struggle. Prior to such social struggles, the same societies that championed the rule of law today created societies where some human beings were treated as fractions of a full human being. 

Often the victims in all such discussion on the rule of law even in the US are the ordinary persons whose interests are highly ignored by the US Congress because those who control the system are "masters of the universe" or those called the "movers and shakers" of the world. Decisions made behind the scenes reflect their interests but there is a well-organized and huge public relations campaign even at the scholarly level to persuade the underprivileged that their interests have super-priority in the public sphere or scheme of things. At the current rate the rule of law is attending to those we might call "the wretched of the earth,"  I wonder when they will be treated as persons who have their own ends and not a means to other people's ends.

 Indeed, in many places of worship, those attending the worship are just a means to other people's ends. As Kathryn Tanner argues in "The New Spirit of Capitslism" finance - driven capitalism, where ever it exists has a logic that requires it to discipline all institutions, people, cultures, and the law to conform to its needs of super-profit levels of return, which is the main driving force instead of satisfying genuine human needs. In doing this, many humans are treated as means to other people's  ends. From this perspective just talking about the rule of law in abstraction ignores how the system has bourgeoisified us to take for granted an exploitative global regime of accummulation that has rendered fragile the dignity of many humans if not creating conditioms for the disappalearance of the human or making a caricature of the human as some scholars say we started as homo sapiens, then became homo faber,  and now homo economicus is presumably the standard human being who fits the current incarnation of the dog eat dog world. 

I am somewhat tired of high sounding words or concepts that never truly translate to improve the life chances of those at the bottom of the pyramid. The pace is too slow.

Samuel

On Jan 28, 2019 10:00 AM, "Ibukunolu A Babajide" <ibk2005@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi,

You make a distinction without a difference!

Everything is anchored on morality.  Law, Democracy, Rule of Law, and Theocracy!  Once the moral underpinning falls, there is anarchy and society falls.  Democracy is a moral alternative to autocracy!  Law upholds moral rules and when you start making immoral laws, law loses its role in society,  Rule of law is the discipline to do what is morally right and correct by law.

Because morality is at the base of all, any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others.  He should honorably resign!

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk2005@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don't escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

On Sun, 27 Jan 2019 at 17:25, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:

Democracy is anchored on the rule of law(due process), while Theocracy is anchored on morality. Nigeria is a democracy.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2019Quotes

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

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