I had jury duty this morning. We were shown a video explaining the ideology of conscripting citizens so that the lawyereaucracy can further enrich itself with, essentially, slave labor. “Apart from military conscription,” we were told, jury duty conscription is “the most important” civic duty that we will EVER perform. Feeding and clothing the needy in your community is not high on the list, nor is volunteering to tutor poor children, volunteering at your church soup kitchen, or donating time and money to charities, or anything else. NOTHING is more important than being a slave to the state — even if only for a short period of time.
Another “lesson” we were taught was that the “founding fathers and mothers” were very, very smart. So smart that they created a third branch of government — the judicial branch — to pursue “fairness.” That was followed by images of Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights figures. No mention was made of justice, retribution, or crime deterrence having anything to do with the judicial system.
We were also informed that the government-employed lawyers in black robes were all brilliant, honest, selfless, and saintly and should never be questioned. The heavily-armed county cop who escorted us to the jury room gave us the tip that we should not chew gum or smack our lips before her highness the judge. The cops, by the way, are exempted from jury duty.
UPDATE: David S. writes that “Of course there was NO mention of your right to judge he law as well as the facts.” He then sent this quote from Thomas Jefferson:
“It is left . . . to the juries, if they think the permanent judges are under any bias whatever in any cause, to take on themselves to judge the law as well as the fact. . . .” (Letter from Jefferson to Abbe Arnold, 1789).
I guess the courthouse bureaucrats forgot to include this.
8:33 pm on May 7, 2018
