2022-05-27
Entry tags:
Putin delenda est
When it was the Nine Hundred and Thirty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that every time the owner of an article came to the dyer he would put him off with any pretext[FN#185] and would swear to him; nor would he cease to promise and swear to him, as often as he came, till the customer lost patience and said, "How often wilt thou say to me, 'To-morrow?' Give me my stuff: I will not have it dyed." Whereupon the dyer would make answer, "By Allah, O my brother, I am abashed at thee; but I must tell the truth and may Allah harm all who harm folk in their goods!"
[FN (footnote) #185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3443/3443-h/3443-h.htm#chap23
Later in the same tale, they describe how technology transfer worked in the ancient world, which would be a good contrast to the modern concept of permissionless innovation.