Law, Logic, and Human Nature

  I recently sat in on Superior Court proceedings in Carroll County. In the three hours that I observed, I was overwhelmed with the sadness and desperation of the defendants. It struck me once more how much of human suffering is the result of ego, emotion, and appetites. I observed cases involving back child support, property foreclosure, and violence over a girl between a current and an ex boy friend. While the cases themselves were very different, at least on the surface, they were similar in their root causes. All of the defendants (and in some cases the plaintiffs as well) were in their situations because of a lack of self control.
  The defendant in the child support case was behind in payments over fifty thousand dollars. He had tried to hide assets by deeding over his house to his current spouse. The judge was not impressed, and the gentleman was sent to jail on the spot for being in contempt of court. Needless to say, he had a very different lunch that day than he had expected. The case of violence involving relationships was caused by the three people involved challenging one another through (anti?) social media and through direct physical conflicts that resulted in some minor injuries and temporary incarceration of one of the three people involved. While the plaintiff and the defendant both had lawyers, the plaintiff really had no case. Her text messages, Facebook taunts, and direct witness testimony showed her lack of a legal case. Ironically, she had one leg in a cast, so she really didn't have much of a leg to stand on! And finally, the foreclosure case involved a man representing himself. He also had no case, because he did not know who actually owned the mortgage on his property. His request was rejected, and he was given a short time to remove himself and his belongings from the property.
  All three cases showed how much people cause their own "quiet desperation," to use Thoreau's term. If any of the people involved had had enough rationality to control their emotions and appetites, they would not have even been in court that day and would doubtless have had happier lives overall.
  I guess the bottom line is, if your life is a train wreck, you can blame the engineer of the train. And you can see the person by looking in the mirror.
  If I were a judge, I am afraid I would have a drinking problem. I cannot imagine having to listen to such tales of desolation and desperation day after day, and having to pronounce  sentence on such unfortunate people. Self control is the essence of serenity in human life.