Willie Budd

[JKSCHW at aol.com]

Michael Pollack says that the Lewinsky Affair--excuse the pun--shows that the
problem with American politics is that we have too much legalism, construed as
excessive respect for and recourse to law, and too little politics, understood
as real debate of ideological differences that matter. As a JD and judicial
clerk I have a special interest in the matter, of course, but while I agree
with the second part (too little politics), I disagree with the first.
Legalism--ordering our affairs by reference to law--is an inevitable
concomitant of living in a large, highly heterogenous, and exceedingly diverse
nation where most people are strangers and have little in common with the
values of of others. There's no other peacable way to resolve disputes, given
the extent of the differences amonst us, than by recourse to law. Nor will
this change after the social revolution, because the diversity will remain.
Socialism will remove only class conflict from the picture. It will not create
a community of shared values. --jks