SCOTUS Chief Justice John Robers, Platonist v. Journalist David Enrich, Activist
The US Supreme Court is a man-made institution. That had been the handiwork of the Founding Fathers when they set up the three branches of the US government.
Yet, its current
Chief Justice John Roberts positions and packages that entity in, well, Platonic
terms. He attributes its legitimacy
to a kind of universal form, as the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato had.
Many monarchies had
the same take, that is, until the people disagreed. Poof went the French
version. Now, if the winter is cold enough and enough folks in England can’t
afford the heat the monarchy there could also lose its legitimacy. The Netflix documentary
“The Royal House of Windsor” exposes the clever public relations strategies the
British royals conjured up to preserve that institution in one of its worst of
times.
In terms of the
history of thought there is nothing wrong with Platonism. In fact, some of us
Tarot readers build our practice on the belief of the existence of archetypes.
Those include the collective unconscious. That’s all explained by Robert Wang in
the classic “The
Jungian Tarot And Its Archetypal Imagery.” That is a guide to the psychology
of Carl Jung. Once a disciple of Sigmund Freud, Jung broke away from that dark interpretation
of human motivation and behavior. He introduced mysticism – and light - into
modern psychology. That has plenty of Platonism in it.
Not that what we do
in the Tarot is for everyone. Nor should everyone buy into our belief
system. But the platonic forms – or the mystical belief in what exists out there
universally and forever – does ease the suffering of the clients for Tarot practices.
It also had been the Roman Catholic version of that mysticism and mystery which
helped me get through a difficult childhood on the mean streets of pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey.
As I deconstruct Roberts’
view of SCOTUS it represents a kind of archetype. If he were doing a Tarot
reading what would surely pop up is the arcana major card
Justice. Given who he is he would pick it up.
That’s the Tarot and
it has a place as a tool for self-awareness and healing. Incidentally, in April 2021, The
New York Times saluted those uses of the Tarot. That includes doing it DIY.
Here is my guide
for that.
But many Americans
don’t believe the justice system, including SCOTUS, is based on universal forms
– or want it that way. If that line of thinking is pushed too far, the whole
system, like the monarchy in France, could be rejected.
We could be on the tipping
point for that. Journalist David Enrich is sowing the seeds for an
old-fashioned revolution directed against the justice system. His book,
published today, directly takes on that issue of legitimacy. That’s “Servants
Of The Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice.”
Yes, it already has reach, ranking 958 on Amazon.
Big Law, just like
SCOTUS itself, is vilified by Enrich as antithetical to the operation of justice.
Those law firms are not only the far-right ones such as Jones Day, which
dominate much of the book. They also include the progressive ones such as Paul
Weiss. SCOTUS comes under the microscope through a discussion
of individual cases.
No longer
unthinkable: The whole thing – the US legal system – can be shaken to its core.
We the people will be fighting for authentic legitimacy.
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