Dear Editor:
In just the first hours in law school a student is told that his goal in law school is to learn to think like a lawyer. Another thing learned early on in law school is that there are no wrong answers but there are simply good arguments to prove or disprove a given point. Interestingly the major premises of these arguments never contain what could be considered an absolute truth. I understood that this lawyer that I was supposed to think like was certainly not a person like say a Thomas Aquinas. It did not take me long to understand that this lawyer was really the ultimate relativistic thinker. It was then I realized that law school was not really an academy of sophisticated learning but merely a trade school specialized in training clever relativistic thinkers. After I figured that out I was able to play their game competently and I actually graduated with distinction.
How did law school become this hot bed of relativism? I believe the answer to this can be found in the relationship between law school and the political science major. What you will find when you attend law school is that many of your fellow students were political science majors in college. Also you will discover that a majority of your law school professor have political science backgrounds. An individual named Frank Goodnow is considered the father of the modern day political science major. He and Woodrow Wilson were considered some of the leading progressive thinkers of their time. I understand that they were friends were many years.
Most political science majors that I have met believe there is something special or even sacred about democracy. I believe the ultimate heresy of democracy is that today people buy into the principle that “Vox populi es vox Dei” , that is the voice of the people is the voice of God. The real problem with this heresy is that today the voice of the people is not an informed voice, but is really the emotions of the people that are considered the voice of God.
I believe that both Frank Goodnow and Woodrow Wilson would be very proud of what present day progressive thinkers such as Hillary Clinton have been able to accomplish in just a few generations. There is really no difference between relativism and today’s progressive thinking.
Dr. W. David Herbert ESQ
Billings,Mt.
