I hope the material presented here will be helpful to people in weathering the storm of information and miss-information that comes screaming at us every day. We need to know and take advantage of the laws that are there to protect our families and our businesses. But we must also realize that many of these rules only serve to protect the monopolies of a few at the top from you and me.
In my earlier life as a single father with kids to feed I became very cynical about the powers that be and the usefulness of the law to help the little guy. In later years, as an attorney who represents clients (real people – not just corporate entities), who face unnecessary obstacles while merely trying to go on with their lives and protect what they have, the early cynicism remains.
Please forgive the cynicism on those occasions here when it goes a little over the top. But I believe there is no moral or ethical value in the law except to the extent that it protects the rights of all of us to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in our own personal way. Unfortunately, it is often used as a means to intrude upon or even destroy those values. We never seem to learn the lessons of history.
In all men’s acts, and in those of princes especially, it is the result that renders the verdict when there is no court of appeal. Let the prince conquer a state, then, and preserve it; the methods employed will always be judged honorable, and everyone will praise them. For the mob is always impressed by appearances and by results; and the world is composed of the mob. – Niccolo Machiavelli
Results are important. But I submit that intentions are also important, even those that bare no discernable fruit. Unless our actions are motivated by things it is impossible for corporations to have: compassion for human beings and a longing to make things right, our deeds are as meaningless as the monotonous whine of the mindless machines we have created.
Rick D. Massey, JD, Copyright © 2010
The Small Business Water Cooler 