Another Pen for Western Culture

Monday, November 26, 2007

Let's Kill All the Lawyers...

First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
--William Shakespeare

For the record, Shakespeare never suggested killing lawyers. The Bard gave that line to a villian in Henry VI. As I understand the play, the criminals know that for their plot to work, they'll have to get rid of lawyers. After all, who else is going to stop them from trampling the Magna Carta and destroying the Rights of Man?

Many argue this is a compliment to lawyers because it acknowledges they are a threat. Thus, this sound bite is not the sort of anti-bourgeois, Marxist sentiment that so many imagine it to be. Lawyers may be capitalists, they may be expensive, perfectionists, critical, abrasive, and control-freaks. But lawyers show up every day, the only one standing between citizens and prison, or between people and poverty. It is still a noble calling and an extremely valuable service.

Who else has the ability to protect you from the tentacles of an over-reaching State?

Consider Pakistan.

What does the dictator do when he wants to increase his power? Musharraf might well have said it himself:

First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.


P.S. Props to the unknown pontificator PTB for a heads up on sources. Consider this article for more on the Shakespeare line, all of which is beside the point of this post.

2 Comments:

  • your link to PTB doesn't go to a blog but rather a profile page. Interesting post, nonetheless.

    By Blogger The Doctor, at 12:33 AM, December 02, 2007  

  • A pontificator eh Steven? You're the one getting into a twist about lawyers. And if Shakespeare wrote the text, Shakespeare said it. Things were very different in the 16th century!
    But you kind of missed the point of my post, defending the good name of Richard III so dirtied by the lies of Shakespeare and all his Tudor misinformation/sources.
    I am 'mere English' and do not pontificate, simply correct factual inaccuracies, and defend a much maligned monarch.

    By Blogger Paul Trevor Bale, at 3:33 AM, December 05, 2007  

Post a Comment

<< Home