Terry Pratchett

Posted by R. Berg on December 11, 2002

In Reply to: The only form of democracy that actually works posted by TheFallen on December 10, 2002

: : : : : Does anyone know who said something to the effect that true freedom/democracy could not exist until the last king had been strangled with the intestines of the last priest?

: : : : Google led me to a page (link below) where somebody attributes that to Denis Diderot.
: : : : news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/talking_point/52730.stm
: : : : Strange stuff at top of page, hmm?

: : : The first time I came across this slogan was in reading about the Spanish Civil War in George Orwell', Homage to Catalonia the last politician by the guts of the last priest!" More recently I saw it displayed on an office bulletin board as "Hang the last Blairite with the guts of the last social worker!"

: : Et des boyaux du dernier pretre
: : Serrons le cou du dernier roi!
: : --Diderot, __Dithrambe ssur fete de rois_
: : [With the bowels of the last priest
: : We'll make a noose for the last king!]
: : ----------
: : I remember, on this matter, the wish made once by an ignorant, uneducated man.... He said he wished ... that all the great mmen in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of priests.
: : --Jean Meslier, _Testament_

: "(The city state) had had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote."

: Terry Pratchett - Mort

: For the benighted amongst you who do not know the works of Terry Pratchett, I commend them to you all whole-heartedly and without reservation.

Having read "Mort," I must say I CONCUR--oops, I concur. And if you like Pratchett, you ought to try Connie Willis.

• Connie Willis ESC 12/11/02