Life Without Lawyers has hit bookstores!
January 13, 2009
Philip K. Howard’s latest book, Life Without Lawyers, was published Monday, January 12th. Please use this blog to post your reactions to the book – which George Will calls “2009’s most needed book on public affairs” – as well as additional anecdotes, personal stories, or ideas for change.
Comments ( 3 )
Nick Salido said:
on January 27, 2009 - 1:23 pm
“Life Without Lawyers” has been a great book so far. I have read through the first two Chapters and have already gained a new perspective regarding how “fear” in many forms, from lawsuits to the fear of not taking risks for safety’s sake have caused me to give-up many freedoms and opportunities, the most important of which is free choice.
I have four young sons and so far I have realized while reading this book that I have fallen victim to the “safety” paranoia that is so rampant in today’s culture and society. On some level I wasn’t even aware that I had this state-of-mind, but as I’ve read I’ve been reflecting on how I conduct my affairs and parenting and it’s now apparent that I’ve been conditioned to worry about every aspect of my kids lives (car seats, rough-housing, riding bikes with / without helmets, exploring the neighborhood, etc, etc, the list can go on and on).
As a young boy I took a lot of risks and did not have all the supervision that I tend to demand on my own kids and somehow I’ve managed to make it to adulthood. I need to lighten-up and let them be boys and do all the crazy things that boys do. The alternative is to simply let them grow-up to be “wimps” as quoted in the book.
I look forward to reading the rest of the book it’s been enlightening.
Charles M. Dean said:
on March 16, 2009 - 6:54 am
Just finished reading your fabulous book and will circulate it!
The following quote I’ve carried in my wallet for years. It precedes you but your book updates it!
“All forms of government destroy themselves by carrying their basic principles to excess - the democracies become too free in politics and economics, in morals, even in art and literature, until at last even the puppy dogs in our homes rise up on their hind legs and demand their rights. Disorder grows to such a point that a society will abandon all its liberty to anyone who can restore order.” - PLATO, CIRCA 400 BC
Had to create the following undeniable truths myself, Voltaire or Plato didn’t come up with them!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge of someone else’s ignorance amplifies that power exponentially! The politician’s use of envy, race the average American’s ignorance of Economics-101 and America’s history and culture makes use of that power.
Need evidence? >>>>> At 16 you can get a driver’s license and you can vote at 18, neither requires a high school graduation! A voter registration card carries with it a lot more responsibility than the driver’s license. You can get both at the same time. Oddly, one requires a test, the other doesn’t. Says a lot doesn’t it?
It’s a lot easier to teach children what to think (indoctrination) than it is to teach them how to think. Reference the decay of our government schools since the 60s!
I served 6 years on a school board in Michigan school board in the late 60s and experienced the front end of that decay.
Thanks again for the work and data in your great book.
Charles (Chuck) Dean
Woodstock, Ga. 30188
Bob Fryer said:
on January 24, 2009 - 1:30 pm
I am, what I call, a “recovering lawyer”, having practiced for 40 years in NH before retiring and moving to Williamsburg, VA. I have purchased and read all of your 4 books. I started thinking along similar lines about 15 years ago, couching my thoughts as “we have gone from a nation of laws and not of men to a nation of lawyers and not of (real) men”. It wans’t until I read you “The Death of Common Sense” and Prof. Camos “Jurismania” that I started putting it all together. I would like to put a short “senior college” lecture together for the Christopher Wrenn Continuing Education program out of William and Mary based on your writings as well as those of Prof. Camos and Judge Catherine Crier (“The Case Against Lawyers”) and Thomas Sowell (” The Quest for Cosmic Justice”) as well as some materials from others. I will of course give appropriate credit to all authors, and this course is, as all of the courses, taught “pro bono” as far as any recompense to me is concerned. I will e-mail by attachment to this web site the first page (still in rough form) and 2 other pages just to give you an rough, very brief idea of what the course will look like. Since there are a lot of retired former executives etc ( including those interesting people retired from Camp Perry and the CIA), it will, hopefully, get some other people thinking about these problems. Sincerely, Robert H. Fryer