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| | One Does Not Speak of a Successful Trial Lawyer as a Great Scholar of the Law.
“The actual habits and attitudes which operate under the banner of the creed to make the institution effective have a slightly obscene appearance. Nice people do not want to discuss them, except for the purpose of getting rid of them.” |
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< | For Arnold, social institutions are a necessary corollary to human sociality. Though we are all empirically related, our social organizations and institutions often work to suppress our kinship and to separate ourselves from “the Other.” The functioning of these orders on our unconsciousness makes it difficult for us to call the thing what it is, except in contexts where the operation of the institution is blatant and meaningless (Santa), or used in such a way as to make us uncomfortable about its effectiveness. This is dually reflected through the purposive content, but underlying ignorance of the New York Times’ “Where Fear Turns Graphic.” That we (choose to) ignore the subtle and less identifiable ways in which we are constantly bombarded with particular attitudes, creeds, and habits leads to problematic results: we see moral culpability in actions from which we can separate ourselves, but create rationalizations where we our complicity is more obvious. |
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> | For Arnold, social institutions are a necessary corollary to human sociality. Though we are all empirically related, our social organizations and institutions can work to suppress our kinship and to separate us from them. As I see it, every organization--from a little league baseball team to a paper office in Scranton to Goldman Sachs-- operates with a unique institutional culture furthered by self-fulfilling propaganda. An easy way to see the functioning of these orders is when Potential New Members choose between competing institutions: fraternity rush, admitted student days, law firm happy hours, etc. |
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< | If I acknowledge that politics unconsciously moves us by creating some notion of a general will whose furtherance demands the suppression of the particular, then it seems I must focus my efforts on creating and participating in institutional frameworks that tend towards the good and the just. How can I know what is good and what is just? I will seek to be Holmes’ betabilitarian: I cannot measure my choices against a normative standard, but against my predictions on how the universe and people behave. The only choice I have is to place my bets and play. |
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> | Coupled with our sociality (and perhaps developed alongside it), is our desire for a narrative with inherent meaning and order. Our need for order stifles our ability to recognize how more pervasive and ordering institutions might manipulate public attitude and sentiment to a calculated end. Thus, we recognize these forces only when the context of the institution's functioning is benign (Santa), or so blatant as to make us uncomfortable about its effectiveness. Otherwise, we operate as if these forces do not exist. This is reflected through the purposive content, but underlying irony of the New York Times’ Where Fear Turns Graphic.
We ignore the less identifiable and more difficult ways by which powerful institutions bombard us with particular attitudes and creeds. This ignorance perpetuates the separation borne of institutional identification, and leads to moral rationalization grounded in institutional folklore, not in reality. A simple experiment to witness this phenomenon can be performed by watching the Fox News Channel during prime time. Journalism today mostly serves to help obfuscate what is actually happening in the world around us (particularly from 2:45).
If institutions unconsciously move us by creating some notion of a general will whose furtherance demands the suppression of the particular, we should be focused on improving the frameworks of society's most basic structures so they are more just. My license will also be a membership to one of the world's most powerful institutions-- the American legal system. How can I use my membership to increase the share of justice in a world devoid of ascertainable moral standards? I will seek to be Holmes’ betabilitarian: I cannot measure my choices against a normative standard, but against my predictions on how people behave. The only choice I have is to measure risk and place my bets. |
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The Sea |
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< | On one hand, Law in Contemporary Society is a class like any other— it has a slot on our schedules, we get credit, and there will be a grade on our transcripts. On the other hand, this class is a holistic exercise in the pursuit of freedom that fosters our relationships with one other, and our expectations for ourselves. Part of how Eben achieves this is by designing this class to appeal to our human sociality and by harnessing the forces that led us to choose law school. |
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> | On one hand, Law in Contemporary Society is a class like any other— it has a slot on our schedules, we get credit, and there will be a grade on our transcripts. On the other hand, this class is a holistic thinking exercise that fosters our personal goals and our relationships with one other. Eben achieves this is by designing this class to appeal to our human sociality and by harnessing the forces that led us to choose to attend law school. Eben is a master institutional architect.
The rituals of the classroom--the music, the lively debate, Eben’s knowledge and war stories, the crowded office hours where students spill out into the hallway-- reinforce Eben's mythology. The wiki adds additional dimensions to the institution's reach and gives us time to play with how we might organize our own institutional efforts. Someone can reroute the wiki's pipelines with a new folder scheme tomorrow, or with little effort as to the how, someone can just participate in this collaborative community. The Changes page is the intellectual version of the Facebook newsfeed (and the bios, our profiles). |
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< | The rituals of the classroom--the music, the lively debate, Eben’s knowledge and war stories, the crowded office hours where students spill out into the hallway-- reinforce Eben's goals. The wiki gives us room for free thought, and a place for more structured work. We can work on its construction and reroute the pipelines if we so please, or with little effort as to the how, we can just participate in this entirely collaborative exercise. Eben uses the larger framework and mythology of Columbia Law School to give us a logical structure as to why we must seek more and the ways we might do so. Eben and his class inspire me to yearn for the vast and endless sea. |
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> | Eben uses the larger mythology of Columbia Law School to give us a logical structure as to why we must seek more and the ways we might do so. Eben and his class inspire me to yearn for the vast and endless sea. |
| | My Feet on the Street (or Marble). Where Do I Start? |
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< | Professor Wu used a variant of this metaphor during a capital murder lesson last week: we put our best and brightest into surgery and dermatology when we should all be going into preventative care. We have court-appointed defense lawyers who sleep during a capital murder trial, and a pro-bono firm partner taking the case at the appellate level when it is too late for the client. I want to go into preventative care. |
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> | Professor Wu used this metaphor to illustrate something he experienced in his work as a Supreme Court clerk: we put our best and brightest into surgery when we need people in preventative care. We have court-appointed defense lawyers who sleep during a capital murder trial, and a pro-bono firm partner taking the case at the appellate level when the client is already on death row. I want to go into preventative care. |
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< | * My Legal Education. This is perhaps the easiest task before me-- I go to faculty and industry lunches and lectures, belong to student groups, attend student government events and visit professors during office hours. I do my readings and supplement them with real world activity. I am going to wring out every dollar I put into this place, and then some. |
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> | * My Legal Education. I go to faculty and industry lectures, interact in student groups, participate in student government, and make use of office hours. I won't bemoan the cost of my tuition until I take full advantage of its possibilities. I plan to wring out the educational value of every dollar I put into this place, and then some. |
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< | * My Legal Institution. I want to contribute to shaping our institutional organization so that it brings out the best in us as students, as colleagues, and as future advocates. I have some immediate, near future, and long-term ideas to this end. For this class, I commit to the continuation of our dialog past this semester, and graduation. |
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> | * My Legal Institution. I want to contribute to shaping Columbia while I am here so that it brings out the best in us as students, as colleagues, and as future advocates. |
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< | * My License. I did client intake at a legal services firm called Beit Tzedek. I know there are always clients to be had, because we turned people away by the droves. Earlier this year, I represented a client family through the Legal Clinic for the Homeless. After a few weeks of work, my client disappeared. This was a lesson on its own, and I want to continue to use my time before I have my license to learn how to be a most effective advocate and representative for others. |
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> | * My License. I want to continue use the time before I have my license to learn how to be a most effective advocate and representative for others. |
| | Building My Boat(s) |
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< | This class cultivates my desire to build my own fleet so that I can tack in all different directions. I want to start building a simple Sunfish that can sail--even if there is little room aboard and it cannot go very fast or far. I want to build a multihull trimaran that can cut through the water at ridiculous speeds. I want to build a motorboat for when the wind dies down but I still have somewhere to go. I want to build a yacht where I can enjoy the fruits of my labor and where family and friends can join me. And I want to be so good at building boats that I engender trust from my clients, and inspire others to build on their own. |
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> | This class cultivates my desire to build my own fleet so that in the future I can tack in every direction. Right now, I am building a simple Sunfish that can sail--even if there is little room aboard and it cannot go very fast or far. I want to build a racing trimaran that can cut through the water at ridiculous speeds. I will build a motorboat for when the wind dies down but I still have somewhere to go. I want to build a yacht where I can enjoy the fruits of my labor. And I want to be so good at building boats that I engender trust from my clients, and inspire others to build on their own. |
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