After sitting on my reading list for years, I finally got to The Leopard by Lampedusa (strangely for me, just after I finished the book, the NY Times ran two articles about Lampedusa and his 50 year old book). It was riveting, but in a way that was hard to explain to others - I lost most people around the time I said ”do you remember who Garibaldi was?”.

I couldn’t stop thinking that Lampedusa has relations still alive who knew him, and he knew the children of the Leopard character - there is a direct memory line today to Europe’s ancient feudal society. This train of thought is a slippery but fascinating slope to slide down; you start sorting out the history of Thuringia, reading the Venerable Bede and wondering whether we should pay our Marines with land grants. It’s a slippery slope.

The Magna Carta would be one of the seminal documents, or symbols at least, of the transition from the ancient ways to a post-feudal society. This might seem counterintuitive - the document essentially transitions power from England’s king to landed Barons, who were upset because King John was a wasteful king who was diminishing their common wealth. But its significance lies in reducing the artbitrary nature of monarchical power and in establishing basic rights for freeman. Like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta is ultimately a practical legal document - almost a memo. It is primarily a detailed, practical set of rules and guidelines, ranging from financial (such as how interest is handled on the estates of deceased debtors) to legal; in addition to establishing the principal of habeas corpus, it says “We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well.” Seems obvious, but maybe not back in 1215.

These old documents are interesting to read because it takes them off the pedestal, and allows us to think more critically about today’s politicians who inveigh them. Inevitably, these documents remind us of how expansive government is today, and how much more we expect from government.