To commemorate today’s signing of the Homeland Security Act, complete with fun stuff like new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, I thought I would reprint one of my favorite bits of movie dialogue, from “A Man For All Seasons.” Thomas More and his son-in-law, Will Roper, are discussing the slimy opportunist Richard Rich:
More: And go he should, if he were the devil himself, until he broke the law.
Roper: So now you’d give the devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get to the devil?
Roper: Yes! I’d cut down every law in England to do that.
More: Oh? And when the last law was down and the devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, man’s laws, not God’s, and if you cut them down – and you’re just the man to do it – do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the devil benefit of law – for my own safety’s sake.
We’re cutting a great road through the law to get to the devil. The only problem is, we’re not sure who the devil is.
Hear, fucking, hear!
Well, at least we aren’t letting the destruction of the World Trade Center affect our way of life. I hear that would be “letting the terrorists win”.
Got fear?
I know who the devil is.
That is one of the more eloquent and better illustrated arguments I’ve heard yet.