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Sunday, January 02, 2022

"Laws are the spider's webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. -Solon (a Greek lawgiver, c.600 BC)"

I saw this quote in a Tweet.


I thought the quote descriptive of what generally happens in the US justice system.  Poor people get sent to prison for years for minor crimes while rich and famous people are much more likely to get much shorter terms, or no terms, for more egregious crimes.  The Sacklers, for instance, are still enjoying their billions out of prison.

The Tweet was a reply to a video showing the most well known unindicted Jan 6 conspirators.


But I try to always check on quotes - they are often  

  • bogus 
  • misquoted
  • attributed to the wrong person.

This one is genuine, and while it's reworded, it conveys the meaning of the original, and while it cites the right source, it gives credit to Solon rather than to Anacharsis.

But it's calls attention to a truth that's been articulated 2600 years ago.


From Tufts: 

"5.

In particular we are told of private intercourse between Solon and Anacharsis, and between Solon and Thales, of which the following accounts are given.1 Anacharsis came to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and said that he was a stranger who had come to make ties of friendship and hospitality with him. On Solon's replying that it was better to make one's friendships at home, ‘Well then,’ said Anacharsis, ‘do thou, who art at home, make me thy friend and guest.’ [2] So Solon, admiring the man's ready wit, received him graciously and kept him with him some time. This was when he was already engaged in public affairs and compiling his laws. Anacharsis, accordingly, on learning what Solon was about, laughed at him for thinking that he could check the injustice and rapacity of the citizens by written laws, which were just like spiders' webs; they would hold the weak and delicate who might be caught in their meshes, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. [3] To this Solon is said to have answered that men keep their agreements with each other when neither party profits by the breaking of them, and he was adapting his laws to the citizens in such a manner as to make it clear to all that the practice of justice was more advantageous than the transgression of the laws. But the results justified the conjecture of Anacharsis rather than the hopes of Solon. It was Anacharsis, too, who said, after attending a session of the assembly, that he was amazed to find that among the Greeks, the wise men pleaded causes, but the fools decided them.


I'd note that The Real Harry Ripcord profile says, "CEO of Urban Dictionary"

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