Last weekend, Ockham’s justice passed away. Antonin Scalia was as consequential a person as one could ever want to be. My guess is history will eventually place him among the top 5 or 10 judicial minds of all time.
But, interestingly, his impact wasn’t due to intellectual innovation. Instead, it was because he insisted on NOT making stuff up. In essence, his “originalism” was that the words and meaning intended when laws were written mean the same thing now. To him, this was a bulwark against tyranny.
And it’s a pretty good all around strategy for those of us in the business world as well! Tortured efforts to “innovate” meaning, whether to excuse bad decisions or paper over departures from principles and objectives, will eventually get you into trouble.
Of Scalia’s many excellent insights about law and life, I’m particularly fond of this rumination on being a Christian…
God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed. … If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.