Yet another blow for distinctions has been struck. Barristers, who used to be visibly distinct from Solicitors in the English legal system, will no longer wear their wigs in civil cases. The egalitarians have won again!
Even though the courts stress that the change is being made to save money and do away with a tradition that is "uncomfortable and smelly" to some, the NY Times revels in the real reason; the wigs were elitist. They marked out the Barristers from the Solicitors, who used to be a kind of every day lawyer who handed litigation over to the specialist--the wigged Barrister. (Not surprisingly, the wigs are kept for criminal trials where defendants report a certain comfort level from knowing that they have the real thing, a trial bulldog!)
Our society is dying by democratization. Pay scales look only at how long you've worked, not how well. Nurses and receptionists all wear scrubs. (Fill in your favorite example here.) On the ecclesiastical side, gone are the days where Reformed preachers dressed in academic regalia to indicate that they were specialists in handling God's word. All we are left with is the ecclesiastical robe, which means what?
So, keep giving all the kids trophys from the earliest ages. Let no one get below an A- on his report card, and don't worry about the qualifications of the one coming at you with a scalpel. You may be angry at him later for botching the job, but at least you won't resent him for being elitist.
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