I’ve been reading Elon Musk’s biography.  Good read so far.  About 4 hours left to go.  It’s a long book.

I have a lot in common with him.  I won’t go into it right now.  But one major difference between him and me is that his brain lacks the neural circuitry for empathy.  And it makes him, in my opinion, a sadly oblivious guy.

For example, when I think of changes I’d like to see in the world, sometimes they’re simple, but straight forward, and would effect most of use in very significant ways.  Because, like him, I want to build a better world…but a) I’m not going to beat the living shit out of others to do it and b) did I mention I have empathy?

One simple thing I’d do immediately (if I had the power of Gods, because let’s be real, this will never happen due to human ego), I’d make some changes in Democratic court systems.  And it all has to do with judges.

First, I’d put judges on the same level as the rest of us.  They aren’t Gods.  They aren’t royalty.  They shouldn’t be up on pedestals like they are.  Like it or not, this is symbolism that most of us (i.e. those of us who have working empathy circuits) get.  They have one job:  to enforce the law.  They can do that at the same level as the rest of us.

Second, do away with their silly robes.  See previous point.

Third, lets be frank:  judges are simply legal referees (or at least that’s what a “good” judge, i.e. one doing their job, is).  They’re not handing down judgement on high, those days are over folks, at least they should be in a democracy.  So going along with the previous points we should also do away with this calling them, “Your honor” non-sense and not be potentially penalized when we don’t cow tow to this ridiculously outdated notion.  Yes, we should talk to them with respect, but not the kind we might have in the past for priests and royalty.  They’re the ref.  Nothing more and nothing less.  And we should respect that just like a football player has to during an NFL game or get thrown off the field.  Those are the rules.  And it keeps us civil, it’s what, in part at least, makes us civilized.

And per my previous point, since they are quite literally just legal referees, we need to get rid of this system where folks must start out as paralegals, them become layers, then become judges.  We don’t have a similar system in sports where it’s mandatory for a referee first to be a professional player before they can become a ref?  True, it sometimes occurs, but the reality is that being a referee is a specialty so someone should be able to go straight to college, go into law, pass the bar, then skip over paralegal and lawyer and go straight to legal ref.  Why the fuck not?

And for God’s sake can we take politics out of the court room?