Hypocrisy & Myth

The Rule of Law in America (and Europe) is a political "story," a narrative, and a performance. It is, in fact, a play and a fiction we have created over centuries, based on choices about what kind of society we desire to inhabit. The Rule of Law is neither a scientific nor a particularly rational invention, but an unfolding performance that has been "playing" in America for several hundred years, albeit with some very serious abuses and blind spots. Hypocrisy & Myth takes the position that the "truth" of the Rule of Law requires a degree of hypocrisy and suspension of disbelief in regard to the ongoing "performance". This in no way renders the system illegitimate. It does, however, make the Rule of Law an easy target for criticism in both theory and application. The Rule of Law is an arational and irrational system based upon an uncomfortable admixture of reasoned ideals, pre-rational beliefs, evidential insights, and mythic stories. Modern and postmodern attacks on these...