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At the Bar
Every Friday for seven years, David Margolick has examined the American fascination with the culture of law and lawyering in his New York Times column, "At the Bar." Here are the best of his observations on the lawyer's trade.
From profiles of notorious legal professionals to provocative explorations of legal ethics and observations on the changing legal profession, this collection is an entertaining must-read for anyone interested in the folkways of modern American law.
From profiles of notorious legal professionals to provocative explorations of legal ethics and observations on the changing legal profession, this collection is an entertaining must-read for anyone interested in the folkways of modern American law.
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1995
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November 23, 2020
Indeed, a book like this one may not go out of print! In fact, this publication had no matching competition and must have a form of the ongoing sequel, at least for the reason of providing great satisfaction of laughter, as the form of the social protection from legalized injustice in place of the failed law to address institutionalized unfairness, lawlessness, ineptness and shameless impunity of criminal minds of the public servants who are find legal loopholes to misuse the legal system for self serving gains, instead of advertised public benefit.
But I am afraid, that was possible only until the discovery of the music therapy tool to address the trauma of the betrayal of Justice system of those, who need the just protections the most - the most underprivileged and the most hurt populations of the society...
My sensational discovery of the 300 y.o. Fugue-Parody by J.S.Bach that he wrote as a part of his visionary and famous Well-Tempered Clavier around the time of his false and retaliatory MONTH-LONG imprisonment, could have easily competed with the hilarity of similarly lacking logic narratives, included in this best selling anthology “At the Bar”, that offers the most unbelievably silly, yet true and realistic insights into suffering of the victims of the archaic and in some ways absurd legal system, that landed on the desk of my friend David Margolick, the Chief of Legal Affaires Bureau of NYT.
But, this part of biography of the 5th Evangelist and Genius-Convict J.S.Bach had remained under-publicized. And it was not due to the lacking interest of the sensations... In addition to the jaw-dropping nature of this event, there are various important reasons for such audacity, and one of them is that 90% of scholarly publications and scores of J.S.Bach’s music have to be discarded, creating much trauma and disdain, due to the need to admit the most obvious blind spot for the very essence of compositional style of all time polyphonic Genius - his intentional use of emotionally/intellectually balanced music compositions for restoring such cognitive balance that is disrupted by trauma and that is essential for the optimal unction of the brain.
But besides the monumental ethical failure, the fact that Humankind simply was not ready for J.S.Bach’s timeless lessons on still evolving and evolutionary young human mind, that continue to remain pioneering and invaluable even for today’s neuroscientists. The real reasons for his month-long incarceration had remained unclear, until the turn to be unearthed for this musically humorous masterpiece in polyphonic style has finally come: J.S. Bach’s intentional use of dissonant sonorities for the purpose of music therapy for positive change, boldly defiant of his time’s ban on such disturbing means for the paradigm change that isn’t utilized much even during our Age of Progress. This Fugue-Parody is one of many intentional compositions of the composer that were created with the clear purpose of using music as the power tool of trauma therapy, as well as the means of educational and developmental methodology to foster resilience in the face of systemic injustice, perpetuated hopelessly for centuries, due to the remaining blind spot of the societal human mind. And just like today’s musicians continue to be expected to improve the level of mental health in the society under Oath of Poverty and to remain among the most underprivileged parts of population, impoverished Genius J.S.Bach had no means for hiring a civil rights attorney 300 y.o. ago to the centuries-lasting devastation for generations to come. But, while today’s musicians continue to lack any means and are left by the society‘s inept leadership with no hope to sustain their professional capacities to use high efficacy transformative impact of music on the human brain, the entire society continues to collapse, while the level of mental health declines, starting with the obvious incapacity of the leadership on all levels of governance. And thus, the policies they develop as the reflection of personal mental limitations, continue TO LACK COMPLIANCE with the research by neuroscientists that had finally provided the reasons, why high efficacy of music therapy for trauma, caused to the victims of the unfair legal system and all its actors, is most easy to observe, if only music therapy would have been allowed to be administered and involved. This ancestral gift of music had become known to allow for our struggling with its evolutionary limitations human brain to release feel good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, oxytocin etc. that help rewire trauma-synapses when we proactively interact with music. No, of course these terms were not in use 300 years ago, in order to help acknowledge the the most obvious felt sense of relief that music provides at times with the incredible ease and almost instantaneously, that most of us is capable to register, but not valued for its intangible, and yet invaluable impact that should be enough to notice, to respect and to be grateful for, due to the ease and the lack of the great labor to achieve it...
And by sharing his personal story in the abstract language of music, the foremost Music Therapist J.S.Bach knew that for generations to come his offsprings-musicians and their audiences would be able to address their trauma from remnants of societal incivility through this and other similarly medicinal music compositions with therapeutic purpose.
Like no other matter, music allows to reflect and to embody the root causes for the blind spots that have immense hazards for our society, due to the individual and institutionalized into paralyzing policy cognitive dissonance. The complexities of polyphony had been masterfully utilized by J.S.Bach as the adequately complex container for the task of creating Sonic Portrait of Cognitive Dissonance from resentment to change. And the form of Fugue had proved to be the perfect structure for the challenge. Indeed, the convoluted can of warms can now be easily examine through the prism of J.S.Bach’s EXPERIENTIAL SCAFFOLDING to dismantle that hidden excusiology that at times prevents otherwise sane individuals from acting rationally and according to the ethics.
So, why this close to miraculous cure for the blind spots had existed for over 300 years, but has not been utilized, nor merely recognized? The reason is as paradoxical, as the outcome: the ban of emotional expression in performance of J.S.Bach’s music. But, many bold dissonances of this Fugue demand for bold emotional expression and thus, prove it to be the most irrelevant for his musical legacy.
Of course, in addition to the medicinal comic relief, this most brilliant publication provides generously, each of us, the readers has a chance to play out resonant scenarios of having similarly powerful protection from institutionalized absurdity of some lacking judgement and sobriety legal decision, when it comes to important for our faith administration of Justice. But we can only guess whether or not the featured individuals with pathological mindsets had been removed from the positions that allowed them to misuse their authority for becoming a social hazard, at least after being in the public spotlight for their shameless outrage in the column, run by David Margolick...
While each and every story of this book does not stop to amaze with its most unbelievable revelations about the blunt misuse of the legal system by some of those “public servants” and “guardians of legal ethics”, who should have never been granted their licenses and bar admissions, not to mention, should have been barred from having access of administering justice (or, frankly, bluntly hopeless injustice) at least after they had earned infamous reputation.
When stories of the same nature are published in the future, it would be logical to read follow up on this aspect by the investigative reporters. And performance of this task would demonstrate whether NYT has the intention to rise above profitable sensationalism, while leaving the root of the universal problem under the cover of the blind eye.
In light of rising discourse on the subject of centuries overdue reform of the Justice and Law Enforcement system, the new volumes may be a good venue to add the subject of police impunity as the key mechanism to misuse the power of authority against the taxpayers, since such important matter appears to escape from the public discourse on such critical for our society subjects as Black Lives Matter
But I am afraid, that was possible only until the discovery of the music therapy tool to address the trauma of the betrayal of Justice system of those, who need the just protections the most - the most underprivileged and the most hurt populations of the society...
My sensational discovery of the 300 y.o. Fugue-Parody by J.S.Bach that he wrote as a part of his visionary and famous Well-Tempered Clavier around the time of his false and retaliatory MONTH-LONG imprisonment, could have easily competed with the hilarity of similarly lacking logic narratives, included in this best selling anthology “At the Bar”, that offers the most unbelievably silly, yet true and realistic insights into suffering of the victims of the archaic and in some ways absurd legal system, that landed on the desk of my friend David Margolick, the Chief of Legal Affaires Bureau of NYT.
But, this part of biography of the 5th Evangelist and Genius-Convict J.S.Bach had remained under-publicized. And it was not due to the lacking interest of the sensations... In addition to the jaw-dropping nature of this event, there are various important reasons for such audacity, and one of them is that 90% of scholarly publications and scores of J.S.Bach’s music have to be discarded, creating much trauma and disdain, due to the need to admit the most obvious blind spot for the very essence of compositional style of all time polyphonic Genius - his intentional use of emotionally/intellectually balanced music compositions for restoring such cognitive balance that is disrupted by trauma and that is essential for the optimal unction of the brain.
But besides the monumental ethical failure, the fact that Humankind simply was not ready for J.S.Bach’s timeless lessons on still evolving and evolutionary young human mind, that continue to remain pioneering and invaluable even for today’s neuroscientists. The real reasons for his month-long incarceration had remained unclear, until the turn to be unearthed for this musically humorous masterpiece in polyphonic style has finally come: J.S. Bach’s intentional use of dissonant sonorities for the purpose of music therapy for positive change, boldly defiant of his time’s ban on such disturbing means for the paradigm change that isn’t utilized much even during our Age of Progress. This Fugue-Parody is one of many intentional compositions of the composer that were created with the clear purpose of using music as the power tool of trauma therapy, as well as the means of educational and developmental methodology to foster resilience in the face of systemic injustice, perpetuated hopelessly for centuries, due to the remaining blind spot of the societal human mind. And just like today’s musicians continue to be expected to improve the level of mental health in the society under Oath of Poverty and to remain among the most underprivileged parts of population, impoverished Genius J.S.Bach had no means for hiring a civil rights attorney 300 y.o. ago to the centuries-lasting devastation for generations to come. But, while today’s musicians continue to lack any means and are left by the society‘s inept leadership with no hope to sustain their professional capacities to use high efficacy transformative impact of music on the human brain, the entire society continues to collapse, while the level of mental health declines, starting with the obvious incapacity of the leadership on all levels of governance. And thus, the policies they develop as the reflection of personal mental limitations, continue TO LACK COMPLIANCE with the research by neuroscientists that had finally provided the reasons, why high efficacy of music therapy for trauma, caused to the victims of the unfair legal system and all its actors, is most easy to observe, if only music therapy would have been allowed to be administered and involved. This ancestral gift of music had become known to allow for our struggling with its evolutionary limitations human brain to release feel good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, oxytocin etc. that help rewire trauma-synapses when we proactively interact with music. No, of course these terms were not in use 300 years ago, in order to help acknowledge the the most obvious felt sense of relief that music provides at times with the incredible ease and almost instantaneously, that most of us is capable to register, but not valued for its intangible, and yet invaluable impact that should be enough to notice, to respect and to be grateful for, due to the ease and the lack of the great labor to achieve it...
And by sharing his personal story in the abstract language of music, the foremost Music Therapist J.S.Bach knew that for generations to come his offsprings-musicians and their audiences would be able to address their trauma from remnants of societal incivility through this and other similarly medicinal music compositions with therapeutic purpose.
Like no other matter, music allows to reflect and to embody the root causes for the blind spots that have immense hazards for our society, due to the individual and institutionalized into paralyzing policy cognitive dissonance. The complexities of polyphony had been masterfully utilized by J.S.Bach as the adequately complex container for the task of creating Sonic Portrait of Cognitive Dissonance from resentment to change. And the form of Fugue had proved to be the perfect structure for the challenge. Indeed, the convoluted can of warms can now be easily examine through the prism of J.S.Bach’s EXPERIENTIAL SCAFFOLDING to dismantle that hidden excusiology that at times prevents otherwise sane individuals from acting rationally and according to the ethics.
So, why this close to miraculous cure for the blind spots had existed for over 300 years, but has not been utilized, nor merely recognized? The reason is as paradoxical, as the outcome: the ban of emotional expression in performance of J.S.Bach’s music. But, many bold dissonances of this Fugue demand for bold emotional expression and thus, prove it to be the most irrelevant for his musical legacy.
Of course, in addition to the medicinal comic relief, this most brilliant publication provides generously, each of us, the readers has a chance to play out resonant scenarios of having similarly powerful protection from institutionalized absurdity of some lacking judgement and sobriety legal decision, when it comes to important for our faith administration of Justice. But we can only guess whether or not the featured individuals with pathological mindsets had been removed from the positions that allowed them to misuse their authority for becoming a social hazard, at least after being in the public spotlight for their shameless outrage in the column, run by David Margolick...
While each and every story of this book does not stop to amaze with its most unbelievable revelations about the blunt misuse of the legal system by some of those “public servants” and “guardians of legal ethics”, who should have never been granted their licenses and bar admissions, not to mention, should have been barred from having access of administering justice (or, frankly, bluntly hopeless injustice) at least after they had earned infamous reputation.
When stories of the same nature are published in the future, it would be logical to read follow up on this aspect by the investigative reporters. And performance of this task would demonstrate whether NYT has the intention to rise above profitable sensationalism, while leaving the root of the universal problem under the cover of the blind eye.
In light of rising discourse on the subject of centuries overdue reform of the Justice and Law Enforcement system, the new volumes may be a good venue to add the subject of police impunity as the key mechanism to misuse the power of authority against the taxpayers, since such important matter appears to escape from the public discourse on such critical for our society subjects as Black Lives Matter
Displaying 1 of 1 review