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We all are criminals.

-- By KamelB - 27 Feb 2009

Prelude

On February 2nd, I read for the first time the Columbia Spectator.The cover headline was relating the death of a 19 year-old student who committed suicide for no appearent reasons. I first read. I then tried to understand. I finally felt tears of anger racing over my face, painstakingly drying on their owns. What brought him to this ? hanging in the common bathroom of a freshman dorm.. I would have loved living in Hartley, but why did he choose it to be his final bed? I was probably buying a white hot chocolate when Eric gave his last breath. Listening to Jeff Buckley, ironically. I am sure I was. Too busy with me. With my damn me, myself, and I. I was wondering what could have been his last word, his last thought, his last hope. Hatred, regret. The hope that someone like me, like them, come and rescue. I felt guilty. And I still do. Because I realized how and self-absorbed I am. Who can commit suicide at the age of 19, in a dorm located in the middle of the campus? I tried to understand. While getting Eben’s thoughts about modern society, relating the current economic situation to individualism, pursue of success at any price, retention of information and knowledge, I gradually understood that we were all victims and actors of this situation.

A selfish act to call for a united awareness

I would not say that I am in favour of an extreme socialist system, where everyone would share every single parcel of its intimacy. But still, more consideration of the ‘Other’ seems necessary. Durkheim in his thoughful essay on Suicide revealed that suicide was a ‘normal and social’ phenomenon, and that every single society throughout the centuries saw people who commiting suicide. Nothing new then. But think about it. In the traditionnal societies people commited suicide with the purpose to defend the entire community. They were treated like war heroes in their highly solidarian tribes. However, in our modern society, it seems that the nature of suicide has changed and is directly related to anomia. Eric must have felt terribly lonely, and his pain must have been all the more substantial as millions of inhabitants are living in the same island. Feeling souls, but not feeling humans. Individualism, selfishness and pursue of one’s own interest are the factors of this shift in the nature of suicide. The heroes of yesterday are today’s isolated and lonely individuals, drown in their social and relational misery. Suicide. A selfish act in itself if you think about. I don’t doubt that his family is suffering, and his closest friends are still under the shock, as I am. But how powerful it is… Grasping the attention of the community for one moment and blantly pointing out the failures of our modern society. It worked. I felt terrible.

Lawyering without borders

Now come the legal implications of these conclusions. Remember Michelle Obama saying that she did not like her job while working at the law firm, because she could not find any rewarding satisfaction in it. She had no raison d’etre to wake up every morning, and that is what she quit after three years. I just do hope this won’t happen to me. Maybe if someone like Eric asked her some legal support , she would have felt better. Maybe if she could have defended with passion the rights of her community more often, she would have felt useful. On the contrary, she represented the economic interests of businesses. And she found no pleasure in it. I did not understand at first. Now I do. I really do. The salaries were luring me. The illusion that we could choose our clients seduced me. The prestige conferred of the words ‘corporate lawyer’ on a business card pleased me. Not to mention bonuses, and all the personal prospects we would fund on them. But why would I sell my soul if I find no stimulation in it? Why would I let individuals going crazy in their pains without even taking the time to wonder what is happening? Why would I put my skills at the service of companies which are resorting to legal advice for the only goal to eventually increase their profits? I know that at some point I will come to the same conclusion as the first lady. . Law has been devised to protect. But it has been first created to defend individual ones, facing discrimination, deprivation, or other rights violations. I would concur with Holmes’ theory contending that ‘ when we study law we are not studying a mystery but a well-known profession’.(p.1). I would just add that one should not forget that this profession was created by individuals and for individuals. Law firms tend to make us forget about it, at the detriment of the latters.

Closing

Eric’s death affected me. It also made me find answers about my role as a human being and soon as a lawyer.Our modern societies are inevitably becoming more and more individualists. What’s more worrying is that even a world finance crisis which affected every single person on the globe did not have any effect on the questioning of such a system. Think about the Russian Revolution. Think about the French Revolution. This current crisis had the potential to lead to the first World revolution, and therefore contests with strenght the viability of a capitalist system in a world where 25% of the global population is in possession of 75% of the resources. Instead, we are still living in a society where individualism and pursue of one’s own interest prevail. I however refuse to see an additional member of our intersubjective community die of despair. I also refuse to engage in a practice where economic interests would prevail on human ones. I prefer to fight for human dignity and especially avoid young individuals to die because their differences is hard to deal with; be racial, sexual or religious.

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