The Inspectors

[lpara]

<span style='font-family:comic sans ms'>January 22, 2003, 9http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif0 a.m.
The Inspectors
A Socratic dialogue.

Xenophon, suppose I think you have a spear. You deny it. You had a spear at one time, you say, but you got rid of it. Yet I believe you retain it. Could you convince me you do not?

Of course I could, wise Socrates. I would swear an oath that I had no such weapon.

But suppose you are not the man of honor I know you to be. Suppose you lack integrity, and have lied and deceived many times before. Should I be convinced merely by your oath?

By the gods, you should not.

Then how else might you convince me?

You might enter my home and see for yourself I have no spear.

Could I search your home, that is, not simply observe, but inspect?

Certainly.

And could I come at any time, without announcement?

Socrates to the Rescue</span> (http://www.nationalreview.c om/robbins/robbins012203.asp)

[Drewman626]

If you rid yourself of the spear, then there should be wood chips, ashes, or something of the sort laying somewhere.

Good analogy... but it's a lot easier to be shown 17 tons of scrap metal than it is to be shown two pounds of wood chips.