A Respecter of Persons?

Tragedy, Comedy are “masks” or “personae” that we where IN RELATION TO others. (Photo credit: Phil W Shirley)

“A Woman Created in His Image” posted a comment on this blog.  I started to reply.  The reply grew and even began to touch on a few insights I hadn’t previously considered.  I thought my reply might be interesting to the general audience for this blog, so I’m posting my reply as an “article”:

 

Although there are multiple definitions for “person,” I understand the term to usually signify a man or woman in relation to some other man, women, men, women, institution, etc.  More, when you see one “person,” you must see two.  A “person” does not exist in isolation, but always in relation to that other man, woman, institution, etc.  Thus, if I’m a “person” in relation to you, then you are a “person” in relation to me.  Insofar as we both participate in a certain relationship, we are both “persons” whenever we engage in that particular relationship.   When we do enter into that relationship, we are expected to wear a “mask” or “persona” of the “part” that we are playing.

 

Noam Chomsky on Corporate Personhood

Image via Wikipedia

Noam Chomsky is a noted “liberal” whose politics lean to the “left”.  His criticism of “corporate personhood” is interesting in that it indicates common ground between the complaints of the “liberals” and the complaints of the “legal reform community”–who are also trying to avoid “corporate personhood”.

Insofar as the the far-right and liberals both agree that corporate personhood is bad, we might be watching the beginnings of an “idea whose time has come”.

video    00:08:18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no8zxGPyapU

 

Speculation on “Persons,” Emergency, and the Obligation to Pay Taxes and Fines

Image by Cayusa via Flickr

One of my readers left the following comment under one of my articles:

“In your opinion, does the definition of person enter the picture. I am not sure what you mean by “capacity” of person. I am in New Mexico and here the word, person, in the New Mexico Criminal Code & the word person in the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Code is different. I am not a person as defined in the N.M.M.V.D. Code but it certainly appears that I am a person as defined in the N.M. Criminal Code.  In trying to explain this to a police officer a while back, he immediately called somebody & said: ‘I have a person here that says he is not a person.’”

 

That comment got me thinking.  I started to write a brief “reply” to try to briefly explain my understanding of “person”.  But my reply continued to grow until I realized that it was not a mere “reply,” but (at least) the germ of an article.  In fact, this article has grown to about 7,500 words, and veered off from mere “persons” to speculate on the significance of emergency, treason, genocide and even our obligation to pay income taxes and traffic fines.  The article is long and unfocused because many of the “insights” are coming to me for the first time, as I write.  But, despite the rambling nature, I think the article offers some insight (or at least conjecture) that you may find interesting.