Not quite as smart as we think we are or should lawyers govern?

This lack of power of the individual in the present day market oriented economic system has an unexpected effect - the ethos becomes that of chance. Individuals 'play' the stock market around its short-term adjustments to gain economic power through the acquisition of money. However, by doing this in sufficient numbers these players become a power group, skewing the market even further. Thus, the short-term game becomes the focus of the market and any long-term necessities such as environmental protection become lost in what I dub the ethics of chance. The financial crisis in 2009 was underpinned by such ethics.

The final fallacy of argument underpinning our society is appeal to authority. This is based on the concept that one cannot argue that something is true just because someone in power says that it is true. The problem is that almost all of our legal system, except for jurisprudence, is based on such appeals to authority. This creates a system that is completely humano-centric, where any long-term environmental considerations again become lost in competitive wrangling to win over the short-term.

Lawyers are certainly experts in this tussle, and from a human focus it is understandable that they make up the largest number of politicians in our society. However, it is questionable whether lawyers are trained to look past short-term humano-centrism, and as such could be the reason we are facing environmental dilemmas such as salinisation, soil degradation and global warming. That is, we are being governed by experts at formalising the give and take of human interaction, rather than those who understand the relationship between humanity and its ecology.

Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing for a complete dismantling of our system. The more democratic a governance, particularly tied with universal education, the more chance there is of us understanding and coping with reality. We all add to the knowledge of the world after all. Neither am I negating the concept of a free market – I just think the major pitfalls of its short-term nature should be considered and addressed rather than just applying it for the sake of some political stance. What I am advocating is for the values found it logic to hold sway over the legal values that underpin the present paradigm. We would have more chance of survival as a species if this were to occur.

Perhaps it's time more scientists, philosophers or historians became politicians.