Things I Thought were True

This morning I had the displeasure of finding out that we no longer hang pirates. This is important because just a few days ago I explained to Anselm Samuel that we did hang pirates. I also explained that he is not allowed to play that he is a pirate, but that he could play the brave naval captain fighting against pirates. (All of this was brought about by watching the classic Oscar winning swashbuckler movie, The Black Swan, in which some pirates turn their lives around and, under the flag of the king, work for law and order on the high seas.)

This has caused me to reflect that over the last 10 years many of the things I thought were true hadn't been true for a century or more. For example, it used to be that an employee protecting the body or property of his employer was almost completely immune from prosecution for inflicting damage on an attacker. (Recently, in California, a gardener was sent to prison for breaking the jaw of a burglar who was stealing from the gardener's employer.) But today this is not the case. This morphing of the law is very bothersome to me. Now laws are more complicated. And in being more complicated, less predictable, and thus more dangerous.

I do not think everything in the 19th Century was good. But at least pirates knew they faced death for their crimes.