The legal fraternity have to abide by the 11th Commandment, they must not be caught. The ten other exhortations along with a lot of people’s lives can be broken with impunity. Apparently an officer of the court can do no wrong, a feathered peacock strutting his wares. The Nazis in Germany had the same perverted ideas.

The next time a solicitor comes to mind think of the millions of blameless and helpless Jews that perished at their hands. The same thoughtless, cruel and destructive ideology is at work today. The Jews on their way to the gas chambers were on their own, officers of the state were there persecutors. Nothing has changed. Exchange an Armani suit for a storm-troopers jacket and enter the same odious beings.

Who in the presence of legalese hasn’t felt the same isolation? The dark hand of history is forever present. The marching jackboots are only two steps away. If they decided to set up camp in the High Court not too many would be surprised. Many victims already have frightening tales to relate. Nuremburg comes to mind, there will not be enough room. Toleration is at breaking point.

The Nazis dragged their victims to their deaths, the Law Society cajole their charges into self destruction. At least the Jews knew the enemy and what it stood for. Jurisprudence is much more cunning, sly and deceptive. Imagine Goebells with an acting degree, Hollywood comes to Hanover. Read the reviews, invert history and walk into the 21st century. Very little changes.

Observe the polished air of authenticity that solicitor’s effect. Not something picked up on Sesame Street. A much higher calling is at work here. The Nazis almost had it perfected; glamour, charm, style and frightful power. It would take another generation though to bring this ideology to the next level. The legal profession has learned well. Now they can incriminate people without trial, without evidence and without notice. A dangerous creed has metamorphosed.

Those adepts in Germany in the 1930’s knew exactly what they were doing. The convicted Nazis held out to the end, firm in their own beliefs. They knew they were only sowing the seeds. The so called victors missed the point. In the broad sweep of history they will be proven to be misguided. They destroyed the messenger not the message. The destructive ideology lives on gaining strength day by day. The blue print was there for all to see, it was ignored. It will not present in such stark, blatant, open form again. The presence will never appear as weak again.

Try to explain to a legal eagle that two plus two makes four and observe the perplexed look. Take note that it is at this instant that a new being appears, a dangerous one that can attempt the impossible and succeed. When the lines between fact and fiction dissolve so do a lot of other signposts. Memory, expectation and truth come to mind, concepts that underpin reality and hold the system of thought together. A loose point of reference is set up against which all ideas are measured; once this is abandoned chaos ensues. The legal profession is intent on bringing into being a new way of seeing the world, black is white and white black according to the need. If the world can be turned upside down and righted again without blinking an eyelid a new era has dawned. The Nazis barged their way into peoples homes using extraordinary logic, the legal profession are invited in.

Legalese has also inveigled its way into the media. The same massive tomes of select and pointed propaganda today as that which ignited the Germans in the 1930’s. This fervour heralded the marching bands and the destructive armies goose stepping into neighbouring territories. The current sound bites similarly for those with a discerning ear are as chilling as any that passed for normal in the Third Reich. Read Iraq and all its horrible consequences.

At every hands turn the human spirit is being crushed. The backward march into the future has to be the mantra of our time. Those that are entrusted with preserving the future are those most intent on destroying it. The codes of law by their own nature were instituted to liberate society; they end up by ensnaring it. The disenfranchised in Germany in the 1930’s realised their fate too late. The noose had already tightened. Before they figured out the shape of the enemy, the exit routes were blocked. It must not happen again.

The grip that the legal profession is exacting on society has all the hallmarks of the culture that emerged in Central Europe early last century. Too many precedents are coming to the fore. The ease which decent people are harshly dismissed by legalese is a sharp reminder of what happens when trumped-up “know alls” gain eminence, the benighted wigs and the ermine gowns must set them on fire.

How many disciples of the Roman church pander to the same idiocy? The emperors of the early days set the train in motion. Caligula fixated as he was believed his horse to be an emperor. The same delusions infest jurisprudence today. Very little can be taken at face value. Peel away the layers of deception and something very close to what drove Germany in the 1930’s becomes evident. The lust for power becomes all consuming, the will to prosper and govern ever present.

Driven by some primeval instinct legalese has a happy knack of sniffing out the weak. The afflicted are always part of the equation. Not content with money, power and possession the legal fraternity also needs to squeeze the life out of some poor soul. After destroying life, home, family and future the legal cavalcade move onto the next fix.

It’s the thrill of the chase, the adrenalin flow. Foxhunters experience a similar sensation. To luxuriate in the throes of another’s demise is perverted but not at all uncommon. Take note of the next time a legal eagle delivers devastatingly bad news and observe the ease of manner in which it is effected. Not a feather ruffles. Observe only the poise and decorum begot by the possession of a well honed sharp claw.

Landlords of yesteryear inflicted hardship on their tenants. Did they love it? Evictions were the high points of the year. Nothing like a good eviction to get the adrenaline moving. The destruction of the Jews in the concentration camps excited a similar sensation in the Nazis. Of course there are gradations like in drug use, the movement is always upwards. The destruction of six million Jews was the ultimate Nazi fix.

Displace landlordism with legalese and reflect on the innocent origins of the Nazis and spot the difference. All thrive on misery, contentment is predicated on the others demise. Like sharks that sniff the scent of blood, all parties are quick to the quarry. What set the Nazi holocaust apart was the magnitude of crime. But it doesn’t take a panzer division to destroy a life.

One stroke of a pen in a solicitor’s office can to the damage. How many businesses, farms and futures have been lost courtesy of a conniving culprit with a slippery legal pen? Change a will, forge a document and force a family into exile. There is more to history than the Jewish diaspora. The legal eagles have forced more than a few to seek solace in a foreign land. The lucky ones could start a new life. The less fortunate, broken, despised and penniless had to make do.

Their persecutors unmoved and remorseless swan around entertained by church and state. The select in society turn a blind eye to injustice. The aristocrats of the Church think more of their palaces and priestly status than they do of another’s grief. How much have they learned from their shameful adjudication of the Jewish destruction? Little it seems.

The Roman Church owned large tracks of land in Europe at one stage, one third of the continent by some estimates. Not all of it got legally, hardly a recommendation for sainthood. The thirst for conquest never fully abates. It’s hard to condemn that which has become part of your own nature; the wretches in Germany learned this to their cost. The legal fraternity has nothing to fear.

The sainted in both parties operate within sanctified precincts aloof from the masses tells its own story. A remarkable symbiosis exists between the two. The conferring of unearthly powers on fledgling egos leads to the erosion of reason. It also leads to the wilful destruction of the intellect. History can testify to this as many grave stones can verify the vanity of sainthood.

There are not too many occasions in living memory where either the “doves of peace” or the “legal eagles” revolutionised an uplift in the human spirit. Back to the law library and start reading. This time begin with the first commandment “thou shall not deceive”.

Seamus Power. +353 [0]87777315