Who Were (Are) the Pharisees and the Scribes?

We're quickly moving into the season of the recounting and remembrance of the roots of present civilization -- culminating in "The Greatest Story Ever Told," and how it still has relevance in these present times -- or do they?

Didn't the Pharisees and Scribes only live in biblical times -- or are there still modern day equivalents, calling themselves by more innocent (noble) titles -- like "professionals" of every stripe, teachers, experts, journalists, freelance writers, lawyers, lobbyists, spokespersons et al? Such professionals have a ruthless ability to divorce their personal lives from their professional (public) ones -- with no qualms about saying one thing, and something entirely different -- from one sentence to the next, depending on what they think they can get away with -- because most people are not so unscrupulous.

However, a few are -- just like an exceptional few will be beyond the limits of the norm in every human activity and experience. Such people we know as "pathological liars," the mentally ill (deranged), the disabled, etc. Most people commonly experience such extremes in the bullying and intimidation of ruthless and ambitious people -- who think that others exist merely for their own gratification and expedience -- and so it doesn't matter if they have to be killed, manipulated or deceived in order for them to get their way -- as the only thing that matters, and is their sole consideration.

Thus we need laws to keep such people in check -- because they don't have the capacity to keep themselves in check, as most people do. That's the line one has to draw -- to distinguish the criminal from the innocent.

The Pharisees and the Scribes are the bullies, manipulators and intimidators of every age and society -- calling themselves such noble-sounding names and offices -- while insisting they should do all the thinking and talking for everybody else, and that it is the station and purpose of everybody else, to merely repeat and chant (sing), what they have proclaimed is the only way one should think and express -- and everything else is heretical, sacrilege, or as we proudly proclaim today, "politically incorrect."

Those who enforce the edicts, merely have these more "enlightened" and better sounding names -- to do the same job they've done since time immemorial -- and of course, are "entitled" to more than everybody else, and their high standing -- for life.