“Changing the words of Naram-Sin, the living god, is treason, because he is the king. But changing the words of Gudea, simple governor of Lagaš, is unjust, because he made things work right.” — Wikipedia, in fine lapidary form.
Jason Kuznicki
Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.
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on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForFailing one test but passing the one where I just like sputtering "how dare you"s in response to off… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForNah, I'm comparing what's happening to Academia in general to 9/11. Academia is the United States, i…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForBack in the early Aughts, we definitely didn't live in a world where people could deal with these ki…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI think you're failing the sh*t test with this line of reasoning, same as they have been. We either…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForIt is not “illegal”. However as a condition to entering this country we make immigrants sign legal d… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For(Oh look, more evidence just today.) on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For...did you just compare firing this guy to 9/11? Like, that's the only logical way to read what you… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForLet me also add that I think killing civilians is wrong regardless of who those civilians are, just…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForChris: How would we classify Israel’s killing of citizens in Gaza? I would call it a war. It's expec… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI'm mostly unclear on the requirements that you have for my answers to you and the requirements that…
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on A Working Man Reviewed on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on A Working Man Reviewed on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For
OK, that does it. I’ve been trying to figure this out all day, and I give. Can you please explain to me what on earth this means?Report
I don’t fully understand it myself.
I half-wrote a stemwinder about how we justify claims of political authority, but it never really went anywhere. And the most marvelous thing about these two sentences is that they aren’t Sumerian at all. They’re Wikipedian, and unsourced, and I can’t even readily tell where they came from. So what kind of authority is that?Report
It reads to me like a paraphrase of Gudea’s statement:
“since the earliest days, since the seed sprouted forth, no one was (ever) supposed to alter the utterance of a ruler of Lagaš who, after building the Eninnu for my lord Ningirsu, made things function as they should”
and an explanation of how if differs from the strictures issued by earlier kings.Report
Who recognizes the name ” Lagaš”? (I’d expect Jason might.)Report