Facing up to the meaning of life

What’s the point of it all? A question that might occur to lawyers on a Monday morning, struggling in an increasingly competitive legal world.

If there is no meaning or purpose to life, as the author suggests, what does that mean for lawyers and society’s attitudes to morality, crime and relationships? Perhaps if we faced up to these realities, things would be better.

Despite its somewhat gloomy thesis – that there is no point to anything and we had better get used to it – this book is a positive and uplifting read. Oerton’s views on life lacking meaning are self-defeated by his many literary references to T S Eliot and others. I especially liked the comment about fellow solicitor and writer, Reginald Hine, who is a hero of mine. He wanted to be a professional author, writing many books on local history and entertaining books on country practice, but had to earn a living in the law. He took his own life when facing allegations of professional misconduct. Hine is quoted as saying, ‘… Doing my duty (by being a lawyer) in a state of life into which it had not pleased God to call me.’

Oerton, admitted as a solicitor in 1959, has had a varied career in private practice, in legal publishing, at the Law Commission and briefly in the Treasury Solicitor’s Department. He finished as a consultant to a firm of solicitors and parliamentary agents in Westminster. He was a review editor of the Howard Journal (the journal of the Howard League for Penal Reform), has written or edited legal textbooks, and has contributed articles and letters to journals and newspapers.

Oerton’s views are summed up in the following statement, in which he hopes for ‘a species that isn’t irrational, ignorant, credulous, uncomprehending, self-defeating, ill at ease with its sexuality, mired in contradictory beliefs, impelled by a savagery let loose by misperception and misunderstanding’. He asks: ‘Could this imaginary species ever become a real one?’ But people are all these things and more. I am not sure a rational, logical beast would be appealing.

In considering religion, Oerton argues that various beliefs serve to help people evade or escape reality, not face up to it. However, most religious people argue the opposite. While most people do not have an orthodox religion, most accept ideas of good and bad. The new secular world is full of different forms of morality, whether relating to human rights or global warming.

Whether you accept Oerton’s ‘stark realities of life’, this book is an interesting and unique read, full of rich literary references.

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury