More on Lawyers’ Roles in the Migration to Clean Energy

God only knows how many attorneys I insulted with my recent piece on the legal system.  I’m pleased to note that one of them wrote me a very civil and insightful response:

Your comment about lawyers is interesting and revealing. I suspect that lawyers are on the whole, not as big a factor in holding America back as economists and business school graduates.

It is also undoubtedly true that almost all scientists, engineers, and technicians who work in the energy field are hostile to solar power and wind energy.

Republicans are openly hostile to the idea that climate change is driven by mankind. I doubt Governor Perry admits global warming is real, even though Texas is burning every summer now, and great storms are devastating coastal areas with increasing frequency and ferocity.

America has many problems, and with only 6.9 percent of workers unionized, it’s hard to scapegoat unions, but the talking heads still do that every day.

I think it might be a mistake to allow frustration to make you start looking at lawyers as a scapegoat.

Now, if you want to blame “corporate government,” the “media monopoly,” economists, accountants and CEOs, I will be in agreement, but you will just alienate those types.

My whole point is, avoid scapegoating, never get frustrated, and just attack the problem with logic and right thinking.

I leave you with this thought: “more bees with honey.”

Have a nice day.

 

I respond:

I don’t agree with a lot of this, but you make some excellent points here — especially about the bees and honey.  In particular, your point on my alienating the corporatocracy is 100% accurate; I do that routinely, even though I’m sure it’s turned off quite a few moneyed people who might otherwise have been clients. There is no question in my mind that my expressing these types of viewpoints comes at a distinct cost. It happens to be a cost that I’m willing to pay, but I most certainly understand that it exists.

And for what it’s worth, I’m a strong advocate of government regulation, IP protection, human rights, and many other elements of our society that seem to require lawyers. I just wish there were a way in which they could function without bringing the world around them to a dead stop, while profiting in the extreme. Perhaps I’m dreaming.

Of course, this is a generality; it’s certainly not true universally.

In any case, I appreciate your writing in like this, and I hope you’ll stay in touch. By the way, if Governor Perry is elected president, that won’t be possible, because I’m moving away, and cutting my ties to the “civilized” world.

(Just kidding, Mom.)