The Rodney King case yields an acquittal, followed by conviction on different charges at the federal level. The O. J. Simpson criminal trial ends in an acquittal, followed by a negative verdict in the civil trial. The Massachusetts au pair case generates a conviction, followed by a lowering of the conviction and the sentence to time served. And here is where we encounter the dark side of play. Somehow, agon gets mixed up with paidia.
Lawyers think that they are playing.
They're not in it for the richness of the interaction, they're in it for the joy of victory. No lawyer has ever told me about a fascinating case that he lost. This agonistic element of their work is socially corrosive, yet they sweep it under the rug of paidia and rationalize it as a necessary element of a healthy justice system. By acquiescing to an egregiously adversarial mentality on the part of our lawyers, we do for justice what Doom does for play.