New subject: American concepts of justice

1 Jul 2004

Dan Drake wrote,

...
  Well, I wasn't trying to start a discussion of
what Americans 
 are really 
 like; quite the reverse.  But I think both of these positions 
 are largely 
 right, as was the one I expressed before.  Here's the 
 amazing, unheard-of 
 secret: not all Americans think alike all the time.  That was 
 the point of my post.

 Still, consider this: a person may believe that his country 
 does something better than most of the world does (to be 
 concrete, let's take the matter 
 of having an independent judiciary that is largely in the 
 hands of people 
 who understand the concept of due process of law and even 
 approve of it), 
 and he may even be right; but when he comes face to face with 
 the places 
 that really are worse, the reality may be shocking.  Thus I 
 reconcile the 
 two positions. 
Dan, would you please weave this insight into a Wikipedia article about
America or Americans? Or start a new article called [[American concepts
of justice]]? Or maybe put this into [[independent judiciary]], as part
of a series on [[American government]]? 

I think it's important for the Wikipedia articles to reflect that fact
that many Americans take just the attitude you described above: 

  that America "does something better than most of the world does" by 
  "having an independent judiciary that is largely in the hands of
people  
  who understand the concept of due process of law and even approve of
it"

Ed Poor

American concepts of justice (was: Rules vs. Anarchy)