The Caring Fist of the Therapeutic State
In my last Lex Cast essay, I looked at what gives a legal regime its ostensible authority and the types of legal authority identified by Max Weber. Legal authority was deified by Lord Lloyd in his work, the Idea of Law, as the Mesopotamian God Anu.
You can watch my video on Weber and authority here
In this essay, I will look at how violence can be and is used to make a legal system function. This force of coercion can be deified as the Mesopotamian storm God Enlil. It is one thing to have the unquestioned authority to make law — but quite another to impose your will on your subjects.
You can watch my video on Law and Coercion here
The Storm represents Coercion. In ancient Greek, it can be symbolized as one of Zeus’ thunderbolts; to Christians, think of the three Angels who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; or in our more mundane lives, we have the lovely memory of police who show up in the park to tell you it is illegal to sit on a park bench, “by order of the chief health officer”; who say, “You are breaking the law” and that you will be arrested you if you don’t “move on”.
