# We Condone It by Our Silence ###### Outline We Condone It by Our Silence by Rebecca Futo Kennedy ## Highlights ### q1 Athens was oppressive > we need to stop pretending that the [worst thing the Athenians ever did was to execute Socrates](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/making-athens-great-again/517791/?utm_source=eb) and openly engage the true dark side of Classical Athens’ anti-immigration policies and the obsession with ethnic purity that lies at the heart of its literature, history, and philosophy. We need to recognize and discuss critically that at the heart of democracy often sits a whole series of oppressions that need not be there, but that can take over when we forget that democracy is hard - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy2njgc54ttxbb7y3nw7h1y) ### q2 Ancient Athens passed anti-immigrant laws > Known as the Periclean Citizenship Law, the law passed around 451 BCE restricted access to political power and other legal rights to only those born of both a citizen mother and father. Prior to this law, one needed only a citizen father. We don’t know for certain why the law was passed, but part of the reason may very well have been a desire to restrict the large number of immigrant craftsmen and merchants whom Athenian citizens felt might compete with them for certain work — contrary to what [Laurialan Reitzammer](http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/04/10/ancient-greeks-immigrants-boon-threat-homeland-security/ideas/nexus/) suggests, male citizens did many of the same jobs as male immigrants (and slaves), often working side by side (we even have [payment lists](http://fromstonetoscreen.com/the-erechtheion-inscriptions/) showing that they got the same pay!). - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgynhyqbfdy5bxd1w91n9n0a) ### q3 Athens was cruel to the descendants of immigrants > Here, Goldstein paints a glowing veneer over the exploitative nature of Athens’ empire and its attempts to restrict access to the wealth and benefits that it brought. For example, Athenian citizens paid no real taxes. It was the “allies” in the empire and the immigrants in the city who paid taxes to fund Athenian citizen benefits like participation in the public assembly, on juries, and in public festivals. Also, about five years after the law was passed, a shipment of grain was brought into the city to be distributed free to citizens. Investigations were done into who was and who wasn’t a citizen and many, some of whom grew up believing they were citizens, were purged from the citizen roles and sold into slavery in order to ensure that only true Athenians received the benefits of their empire. Useful for teaching Athenian democracy if I'm allowed to include this. But also some interesting potential conflict things for storywriting. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgynjfaenep4h11ntymd9pg2) ### q4 Athenian elites were cruel even to their friends > The orator Lysias is another example. Lysias was born in Athens sometime after the passing of the Citizenship Law. His father had come to Athens from Sicily at the invitation of Pericles and established a business there making shields for Athens’ army. Lysias’ family was wealthy and had connections to many of Athens’ elites, including Socrates, Plato and many other students of Socrates. Under the democracy, his family had been rewarded for their generous contributions to civic life and the Athenian military with exemption from the immigrant tax and the right to own property, an impressive reward in a city that so prided itself on its indigenous status that typically only those born of the land could own it. > > And yet, Lysias lost everything — wealth, property, family — when the democracy was dismantled by a group of elite Athenians, including family members of Plato and followers of Socrates. They murdered Lysias’ brother, even though they had been friends and had regularly dined at his family home. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgynkyrdv7eg7y52j22wg5v3)