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ChangingSocietyUsingWordsTalk 4 - 24 Mar 2009 - Main.UchechiAmadi
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| | We've tentatively defined lawyering as "making something change in society using words." I think about this a lot, both in and out of class. Obviously, there are many ways to make change in society using words; this is something not only good lawyers, but also good journalists and novelists do. For me, that raises the question: what can lawyers contribute to making social change that novelists and journalists can't? Does our usefulness lie in our knowledge of, and proximity to, structures of power?
I bring this up because the groundwork for many of the prominent social reforms of the last century seems to have been laid by other kinds of writers -- Rachel Carson and Upton Sinclair, for instance. In the realm of foreign policy, simply by showing people what was really going on, journalists helped turn American public opinion decisively against the Vietnam War. This seems to have impacted Vietnam policy, and foreign policy in general, far more effectively than lawyers ever could have. | | | The difference I see between the professions is that lawyers have far longer to go before stopping. If a lawyer researches an issue and "presents for publication" to a judge or jury, she is advocating for a client at the moment but also had the past opportunity to pursue a class action, negotiate settlement and collect evidence; similarly, she has the opportunity in the future to craft words carefully in an appeal or while advocating for someone in an analogous situation years down the road. As lawyers, I do think we get the layman prestige and the power. When you think about it, what could be more cool than spending your life taking the next step -- waving the red flag, screaming "hey, look what's going on" and actually having people turn around to listen? | |
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> | - Uchechi | | | ********************
[Note: The post above is not mine.] |
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