The truth, and nothing but the truth…
(c) Melina Magdalena (2007)
Are these two things unrelated?
a) Yahoo! News today includes Why Women Worry So Much which posits a more developed mind connection in females than males, between the past and future. These connections, far from being useless stressors by overemotional, hysterical females, provide a basis for reasoned arguments and decision-making. As Andrea Thompson writes, “This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.”
b) Wikipedia’s article about "Truth" is unrelentingly male. Not one woman’s voice is quoted in this article, though women wrote some of the references (diligently doing their research on men’s ideas). Two of the three images on this page portray “Truth” as a naked woman – one being rescued by “Time”, as he vanquishes “Falsehood” and “Envy” (both male?) and the other (naturally the work of another male artist) portrays Truth as a naked white woman with long, dark hair, who holds a shining orb of light. Interestingly, the light is neither a long and pointed flame, nor a beacon, but a glowing sphere.
You tell me! Can you see a connection here?
In my experience, it is not possible to be on the ‘right’ side of the Law. The Law has no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ side – it is merely an instrument for establishing and maintaining a system of decision-making, which is based on layer upon layer of previous decisions. Those who are touched by the Law, even when they firmly believe that ‘right’ is on their side, usually end up burned, along with their treasured version of Truth, which has been maimed beyond recognition.
There is very little transparency in Law. Those who practice the Art of Law are hard-pressed to explain its ins and outs to those whom they represent. The best example of this fact is the unwillingness of lawyers to be able to say which way any case is likely to go. Both sides enter the game with the possibility of emerging the victor. Where is the justice in this?
My interactions with lawyers, judges and barristers have been overwhelmingly frustrating. There are never any clear answers. Advice is invariably couched in terms of perhaps and could be. This has the effect of making me feel that there are prevarications on every side. Like a character in a Kafkaesque story, the unwitting victim has no recourse.
There is no easy way out, once the process has begun. Those who fight their way out are blamed for failing to show proper respect to the Law, and end up with egg on their faces. Look at those survivors of Family Violence who steadfastly refuse to press charges against their abusers on the basis that having to go through the police and court system will be more painful and achieve a less satisfactory outcome, than continuing to survive the abuse. Especially once they’ve already been exposed to such risks, women can be very skilled at perceiving and avoiding further risk of pain, exposure and humiliation.
When we refer to arbiters of the law as sleazy, untrustworthy crooks, it is because of the contradiction between the message we are given, that Law is pure, logical and just, and our experience of Law, which is mystifying, illogical, painful, humiliating and unfair. In my experience, Law has no transparency and very little logic.
It’s not fair to lawyers, that laypeople complain and abuse them, and hold lawyers and politicians to blame for all of the ills of the world, but nor is there much fairness in the Law. Such accusations should not be taken personally.
The Law, you see, is played at by Experts. These Experts may be familiar with the strange fire they encounter, but the layperson very often doesn’t, as those who become tangled in Law discover, to their great cost. The layperson’s objections to the great monetary cost of legal battles are justified. What is the price of a life?
Monopoly is the board game most akin to legal battles, in which vast sums of meaningless cash are handed from one player to another, without there being much fairness or justice involved in the transactions. It all comes down to the roll of the dice. Once the Experts have creamed off their portion of the spoils, there’s sometimes not much left for the person to whom these sums of money were awarded.
And who really believes that money can repair, undo or make good the damage done to people? I am as guilty as the next person, in believing that having more money will make me happier and more comfortable, but I don’t have to dig very deep to find an inner voice that tells me I will always, no matter how well off I am, have something to struggle with, and that wrestling with those demons is what life is really all about.
Those who enter the world of Law do so at risk of their privacy and wellbeing. Few emerge unscathed, even if their cases do not get sucked into the maelstrom of sensational news reporting. In fact, journalists usually ignore those whose stories ought to be told, but that’s another story.
Things happen. They are rarely planned. Causality is most often a product of hindsight. Those who find comfort and happiness in seeing the connections, and those who are skilled in choosing their path may find their path is smoother than those whose dispositions lead them to grumble and complain and always believe the worst of any situation. But even an optimist can be thrown for a six at the worst of times, and find herself struggling for her next breath.
Or is that an unbearably facile proposition? Is it inane? Am I insane? Allow me to try just once again.
If Truth is a shining orb of light – not the harsh, damaging, life-giving sunlight, but rather the gentle, silvery glow of moonlight – then surely we must be equally preoccupied by what is hidden, as what is exposed? Perhaps it is a happy accident that Men have chosen to represent Women as the bearers of Truth?
In this simplistic dichotomous world, Women are often seen as those who seek to make connections, to see causality, to predict the future in ways that are renowned for mystifying and frustrating the Men who just can’t keep up with our brilliant leaps of logic.
Add the Male versus Female Power quotient into the brew, and attempt to discern Truth, and it is as clear as the proverbial mud. This is a sick, sad world and that’s the truth.
Come on Women – you know the answer to my next question even before I go so far as to ask it:
What is most often, the product of frustration?
Anger, of course! Accompanied by violent outbursts!
Many are the foul crimes that are committed in blind rage as a product of humiliation. It is a perverse situation when such crimes in turn are the direct product of a lack of humility in those who commit them. Those who take themselves too seriously expect others to do the same. Though they appear unpredictable and occur unpredicted, such acts of violence horrify, terrify and suppress resistance. Such crimes compound and multiply, all in the name of truth and justice and logic and causality, although these are in fact rarely acknowledged.
I’d better watch out now, lest I be accused of inciting male violence as inflicted upon females who are just too smart to know any better.
Perhaps you’ve heard the sentencing arguments before. Perhaps it’s because their uncle abused them, or because of how their mothers brought them up? People find it easier to believe that criminals and those who start wars are tragically flawed in some way, than to believe that they are no better and no worse than any of us, and that they make considered, though horrifying and greedy choices to harm others for their own personal gain.
Of course you’re entitled use Law to pursue damages. You believe Right is on your side. You believe Law is based upon Truth and Justice. Your lawyers will guide you through the labyrinth, but they won’t explain, illuminate or enlighten you of the outcome. They can’t, because they have no prior knowledge of the outcome. Some things, such as media attention, simply can’t be predicted.
Enter at your own risk. Maybe you will get satisfaction from playing the game? But beware! If you play the victim when you find you have jumped out of the frying pan that was your life, and into the strange fire that is Law, you may be hard-pressed to find sympathy. Perhaps it’s human nature to blame people for their own misfortunes. Who ever said that life would be easy, or that the Law would treat you fairly?
I rest my case.
