Thursday 3 March 2011

Copying Solon

I don't know what was in the water in Ancient Greece but they sure did churn out a lot of philosophers, probably the most famous being Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. All very impressive and a good case could be made for all of them being the greatest thinkers ever, but i have always been impressed with the lesser known Solon who is credited for thinking up the earliest form of Democracy that would later become the
system that we would say we adopted but never actually did.
Solon was not only a statesman, lawmaker and philosopher, but he would write his policies in the forms of poems. On the idea of money he wrote:

'Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor,
But I would rather trust in what's secure;
Our virtue sticks with us and makes us strong,
But money changes owners all day long'

I never said they were good poems but what a great idea and one that should be revived so all our politicians can only pass new laws and make statements if they are done through poems.


Say I, David Cameron with dignity
To Gadaffi the black prince of tyranny
Please be a good chap
stop this killing folk crap
or we'll light up your state like a Christmas Tree

Gadaffi's reply:

The British all think that i'm mad
They want to kill me and my lad
But i will not despair
and us he can't scare
Cause he sold me all the arms that he had


How much more fun would it be and what with the age of austerity we are now in, all those poems about bankers although i'm struggling to think of any words that rhyme with bankers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lucy,

i believe the big 3 all saw "true" democracies as flawed economically. so they all preferred a republic. seems the greeks thought the same way a very long time agon...

q