Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

n0ire wrote:

It is because I have studied history, because I know that democracy is a fragile thing and has been destroyed many times before, that I am so deeply afraid of the political situation now. Everyone I know sees our rights being eroded, our civil liberties trampled, our public dialogs curtailed and our influence over events derailed. Everyone is worried.

Not everyone can see that this is what has happened before, that the current situation falls into a very old pattern. In my head I see not only the current administration, but the fall of the Weimer Republic and the end of Republican Rome. Marius and Sulla and Pompey leave their echoes today as they dismantled the Senate one privilege and crisis at a time.

Do not be misled by the fact this was two thousand years ago--the Romans of the day were as deeply committed to their democracy as we are to ours; their history of self-rule was far deeper and older than ours at present, and their belief in the rule of Law, of Debate, of the Public Good was no less bone deep because they lived without microwaves and the internet. And yet, in the course of a single generation, the entire structure was dismantled and an Imperial family set in its place.

"trickier than Gollum on a speed high"