00100	GRUMBLES ABOUT THE PRESENT AMERICAN STATE OF MIND
00200	
00300	1. The legal mind
00400	
00500	2. The bureaucratic mind.
00600	
00700	3. Pessimism and Cynicism
00800	
00900	4. reference to docdil.ess
01000	
01100	5. the subservience of scientists and engineers
01200	to intellectual trends.
01300	Alas, there are not two cultures.
01400	
01500	6. The english major and the bureaucrat.  The english major
01600	and the advertising man.
01700	
01800	7. Freud and Marx and Watson.
01900	
02000	8. American intellectual dominance of world culture.
02100	
02200	9. Man is vile.
02300	
02400	1. The legal mind.
02500	
02600		The environmental movement and the left are converting
02700	many decision making processes that used to be administrative
02800	into adversary proceedings.  In this, they are abetted by
02900	the middle aged lawyers that constitute the courts and
03000	the legislatures.  The reasoning behind it is that objective
03100	decision making is a myth and that there are always interests
03200	behind each way of making a decision and that it is better to get
03300	these opposed interests in the open.  Generally, this is
03400	associated with a view that there are public interests and private
03500	interests that are generally opposed in a decision and that
03600	the purpose of the adversary proceeding is to give the public
03700	interest a better chance.
03800	
03900		An important effect of this tendency is to make
04000	every proceeding into a legal proceeding dominated by the skills
04100	and attitudes of lawyers.  Lawyers have the following attitudes
04200	that often have unfortunate consequences:
04300	
04400		1. My client right or wrong.  The responsibility of
04500	the lawyer is to make the best possible case for his client.  If
04600	he omits relevant facts or makes arguments he knows to be weak
04700	or appeals to principles he knows would be disastrous if
04800	generally applied this is ok, because there is another
04900	lawyer on the other side and it is his responsibility
05000	to raise arguments in the other direction.
05100	
05200		2. Every issue has two sides.  The tendency to
05300	see problems in terms of issues between groups often leads
05400	to unnecessary conflict.
05500	
05600		3. Delay is a privileged tactic.  When a side can gain
05700	by delay, it may raise irrelevant issues for this purpose, and
05800	judges ought to err on the side of delay.
05900	
06000		4. Legal procedure is more important than substance.  A
06100	side deserves to lose if it makes a procedural error, even
06200	if it is correct about the main issue.  This cancer starts
06300	in criminal law, but has extended to all kinds of issues
06400	e.g. the Alaska pipeline should be delayed if an i hasn't been
06500	dotted in the Environmental Impact Statement.
06600	
06700		5. It is more important to avoid blame than to accomplish
06800	anything.
06900	
07000		6. In any decision making proceeding, it is ok to pursue
07100	self interest unrestrictedly and bloody-mindedly.  A newspaper
07200	should always oppose an increase in postal rates.
07300	
07400		What if anything can be done to curb the legal mind?
07500	
07600		1. Preaching may do some good.  No-one has
07700	criticized lawyers as a group in some time and they may
07800	not be totally immune yet.
07900	
08000		2. Attack on some of their more selfish monopoly positions.
08100	E.g. an initiative to rewrite the inheritance laws that permit
08200	lawyers to take tribute.
08300	
08400		3. Build an awareness of lawyer's sins among other
08500	groups.