Shakespeare may have had the right idea

William Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part II.

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

Talking to (or being spoken at) by a law professor this morning, I was presented with the idea that lawyers regard themselves as self-sacrificing creatures who have to read all the things no one else wants, eating spinach, in other words.

Of course, it was presented in such a way as to imply that everyone who isn’t a lawyer is an idiot, and we should count ourselves lucky we have lawyers to do all that drudgery for us.

Evidently, this idea was common 400 years ago in Shakespeare’s time, so the rest of us haven’t gotten any more clueful nor have the learned brethren gotten any less arrogant.

(and who writes all the stuff none of us want to read? Lawyers, of course.)