Solon

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Mar 5, 2009 at 09:38

Hi, Merry!

>I'm very aware the world is not "governed by legal fictions and sweet wishes," but within the US there is a fundamental premise that this little corner of the world is to be governed "by law, and not by men." It doesn't always work that way, God knows, but an essential element of that fundamental premise is and must be "a presumption of innocence until proved guilty."<

When Solon was asked what the best constitution was he answered : "For whom and at what time?" What the enlightened Puritans established worked very well as long the country preserved its original character as taken for granted by the authors of the Constitution. Yet, in the meantime things have radically changed. The enlightened Puritan has been pushed aside by the political opportunist. The old external forms of today's America have lost their previous internal contents. I doubt strongly if G. Washington -if suddenly resurrected - could recognize at all - let alone identify himself with - the country and its institutions he helped create ?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".