Douglas got me thinking about Bach:
And this other beautiful music, also used in "Barry Lyndon," which had just about the best movie soundtrack ever:
And this, not from Barry Lyndon, the "Knights' Dance" from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Nureyev choreography. Juliet's doting family tells her, "Fun and games are over, honey! Time to step into the grinding machinery."
Right brain
I feel like posting music and movie clips that speak directly to my right brain and have effects I don't understand at all.
That was Philip Glass's "Opening" performed on the marimba. It's perfect for that instrument: simple repeating pairs on notes in each hand. It sounds complicated only because the right hand is doing triplets over the left hand's doublets. This composition is buried in the theme music for the under-appreciated movie "Breathless." In the final scene, the modified Glass piece alternates with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Breathless," followed by the same song performed by "X."
I get exactly the same feeling from "The Piano":
That was Philip Glass's "Opening" performed on the marimba. It's perfect for that instrument: simple repeating pairs on notes in each hand. It sounds complicated only because the right hand is doing triplets over the left hand's doublets. This composition is buried in the theme music for the under-appreciated movie "Breathless." In the final scene, the modified Glass piece alternates with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Breathless," followed by the same song performed by "X."
I get exactly the same feeling from "The Piano":
Rest
An unusually well-structured hymn, number 652 ("Rest") in the 1982 Episcopal hymnal, by Frederick Charles Maker, 1844-1927. Too many hymns have the tune structure a-a-b-a, but not this one:
The harmonies are unexpected, too.
The harmonies are unexpected, too.
Saint-Saëns
This Saint-Saëns piece is called "Aquarium," but I first heard it without knowing its title, and it always made me think of the scene in one of the Narnia books where Lucy awakens in moonlight and feels that the trees are just about to wake up. This short film has something of the same feeling.
I heard "Aquarium" on the radio coming home this evening and noticed that the announcer pronounced the final "s" in the composer's name. An internet search suggests that this is a result of the diaresis over the "e" in Saëns.
I heard "Aquarium" on the radio coming home this evening and noticed that the announcer pronounced the final "s" in the composer's name. An internet search suggests that this is a result of the diaresis over the "e" in Saëns.
Belated Fourth
I'm fond of the "Titan" science-fiction trilogy by John Varley. There is a race of centaurs who communicate in music. They're puzzled by the human habit of playing the same piece of music over and over in what they consider a frozen form, but at the same time they go ape over some human musicians, particularly John Philip Sousa. Well, who wouldn't?
Speaking of music, I attended my uncle's memorial service in the old San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio today. Imagine my enchantment when the very beautiful harp music that was playing while mourners were being seated gave way to a fine mariachi band that led the priest up the aisle. After the service, which included some thoughtful eulogies by my uncle's son and two of his grandsons, the same mariachi band played another song and led the crowd in a procession down the street (this was in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo) to the building where the reception was being held. It was like a San Antonio version of a New Orleans funeral.
A fitting send-off for a grand paterfamilias.
Speaking of music, I attended my uncle's memorial service in the old San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio today. Imagine my enchantment when the very beautiful harp music that was playing while mourners were being seated gave way to a fine mariachi band that led the priest up the aisle. After the service, which included some thoughtful eulogies by my uncle's son and two of his grandsons, the same mariachi band played another song and led the crowd in a procession down the street (this was in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo) to the building where the reception was being held. It was like a San Antonio version of a New Orleans funeral.
A fitting send-off for a grand paterfamilias.
Magic & The Occult in Islam
I haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but it comes well-recommended.
Ready To Die
Tex has been throwing us some good stuff. I think I like this popular trend against the law. It's old school for moonshine country, as some of them seem to realize. It's also past the racial divide, which is nice for those of us who have fought together with brothers across the color line. Who still cares about that? Some. Not us.
'Pistol Packin' Papa' is a clear play off the 1943 hit "Pistol Packin' Mama," which you can hear here:
The law lacks defenders among those who are supposed to be its chief champions, except when it's rhetorically convenient. Doubtless that's one reason support for the law as such is wearing away.
As a not-so-serious part of their ongoing effort to get rid of Obamacare, House Republicans in May started a Twitter fight they called #ObamacareInThreeWords. Rep. Darrell Issa got things started with a tweet that said simply, "Serious Sticker Shock." Rep. Michele Bachmann added "IRS In Charge." Sen. Richard Burr tossed in "Huge Train Wreck."Extra points if you can relate the discussion to Plato's Statesman. Turns out that Plato was interested in the very same questions. It's only the last third of the dialogue, if you want to read it and haven't.
Democrats hit back, weakly, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's "Good for America" and Rep. Gregory Meeks' "What America Needs." And then the White House stepped in with a killer line: "It's. The. Law." The tweet was accompanied by a photo of the president's signature on the Affordable Care Act, dated March 23, 2010.
Case closed: What part of "It's. The. Law" don't you understand? Just to add emphasis, in early June President Obama dismissed concerns that the national health care startup was not going well. "This is the way the law was designed to work," he told an audience in California. "Since everyone's saying how it's not going to happen, I think it's important for us to recognize and acknowledge that this is working the way it's supposed to."
Now, however, it appears the administration's bravado was all for show. At the same time Obama was expressing great confidence, White House officials were secretly meeting with representatives of big business to discuss ways to postpone enforcement of parts of the new law. And on Tuesday the White House announced that the employer mandate - sometimes described as a "crucial" element of Obamacare - will be delayed to 2015 from its scheduled start on Jan. 1, 2014.
The Rains of Amicalola
Amicalola Falls is a special place for me: the playground of my youth, the place where I was married, the place of testing myself by running the seven hundred steps in the days before I went to war. It is impressive to see how the recent heavy rains have affected it.
Crash
Perhaps it's too soon to say, but it's starting to look as though everyone aboard the Asiana flight out of Seoul got out safely after crash landing in San Francisco just now. The TV footage of the burned-out fuselage looks terrible, but evidently most of the fire broke out after the nearly 300 passengers evacuated. It seems that the plane came down just short of the runway on a water approach, clipped the rocky breakwater, lost its tail section, and spun like a top without breaking up.
Mud life
This sounds like fun:
The hick-hop music doesn't do it for me, though. Since I couldn't find a YouTube example that I liked enough to link here, I opted instead for the theme from "Justified," which apparently is called "ganstagrass":
Mud bogging has been a popular activity for decades, especially in the South, but the mud world's musical tradition is recent, with live-music stages sprouting up in at least 162 off-road-vehicle parks over the past five years. Fans typically pay about $40 a weekend to cook out with friends and play in the mud with a wide range of vehicles, from $100,000 trucks to homemade contraptions fashioned from tanks, lawn mowers, even king-size mattresses, all jacked up on giant tires forbidden on city streets.Golf carts and "mules" are popular here. If my neighbors got into the mud-bogging tradition I might be inspired to get a golf cart and trick it out with monster tires and woofers.
The hick-hop music doesn't do it for me, though. Since I couldn't find a YouTube example that I liked enough to link here, I opted instead for the theme from "Justified," which apparently is called "ganstagrass":
Photos of a Bustling 19th Century America
It's too bad this didn't come before Independence Day, but it's still worth looking at now. Here is a large collection of some extremely clear photographs from what is now the century-before-last. There's something of a focus on technology, I think, though it wasn't the purpose of the collection as far as I can see. It's just that in those days the new machines were so impressive, perhaps.
Government by waiver
A new dilemma in Washington, D.C.: how to impose a job-killing minimum-wage hike without killing the unionized employers we approve of? Easy answer: waive the requirement for your supporters:
Which is why the proposed law exempts companies operating under collective-bargaining agreements. That's right, supermarket chains like Safeway SWY +2.80% and Giant get a pass because they have union workforces. So paying a non-living wage is fine as long as it also finances union dues.This way, we can acknowledge the ruinous effect of crazy economic policies without letting anyone we care about experience the ruin. Wait, did I say economic policies? I meant to include healthcare policies. And FOIA fees. And foreign policy on coups. And welfare policy. And immigration policy. And layoff notices too close to an election. Really, it's safest to make everything illegal, and then grant dispensations for your more compliant subjects.
It's bound to work this time
If only we could curb that terrible profit motive. I know! Let's implement price controls and prosecute hoarders.
They probably believe they're helping the good people by punishing the bad people. The problem is, they have no understanding of where value comes from, and what keeps it coming.
They probably believe they're helping the good people by punishing the bad people. The problem is, they have no understanding of where value comes from, and what keeps it coming.
The plant that can't die
Because the employer has no right to close it, if workers would be unhappy. Ever.
You can pull that trick once. Then try getting the next guy to invest in a factory. It may turn out that the only capital available is whatever the locals can raise, because foreign capital isn't endlessly gullible. And, strangely enough, local capital isn't readily available in such a system.
It's not enough for the policy to have benevolent intentions. Pretending that jobs are charity is a good way to ensure that the jobs go away.
You can pull that trick once. Then try getting the next guy to invest in a factory. It may turn out that the only capital available is whatever the locals can raise, because foreign capital isn't endlessly gullible. And, strangely enough, local capital isn't readily available in such a system.
It's not enough for the policy to have benevolent intentions. Pretending that jobs are charity is a good way to ensure that the jobs go away.
A Medieval Movie Resource
If you're like me, you know someone who periodically shows up at your door and says, "Hey, let's see a movie."
"Great," you respond, "what did you want to see?"
"Oh, I don't know," she replies. (It may be a 'he' for some of you.) "Pick something and let me know." This turns the two-hour commitment for the movie into at least a three-hour commitment as you try to dig things up, only to have your first several choices shot down as unappealing.
One good resource might be this collection of movie reviews at Medievalists.net. Most of these are available online, which is the only way I usually see movies anymore, and the reviews are by people who are knowledgeable about the relevant history. I suspect that many of you, like me, find that to be an important quality in a movie.
Got any other good resources?
"Great," you respond, "what did you want to see?"
"Oh, I don't know," she replies. (It may be a 'he' for some of you.) "Pick something and let me know." This turns the two-hour commitment for the movie into at least a three-hour commitment as you try to dig things up, only to have your first several choices shot down as unappealing.
One good resource might be this collection of movie reviews at Medievalists.net. Most of these are available online, which is the only way I usually see movies anymore, and the reviews are by people who are knowledgeable about the relevant history. I suspect that many of you, like me, find that to be an important quality in a movie.
Got any other good resources?
For my neighbor Max
From Douglas's link:
To Max: Viet Nam vet, business owner, indefatigable builder, good neighbor, and the kind of solid citizen that every free society needs. When he came back from overseas, he didn't get much of a welcome, which was a shame, but he didn't let it ruin his life. Those people were wrong, they should have known it, and I hope they know it now.
Update: link fixed, I hope.
To Max: Viet Nam vet, business owner, indefatigable builder, good neighbor, and the kind of solid citizen that every free society needs. When he came back from overseas, he didn't get much of a welcome, which was a shame, but he didn't let it ruin his life. Those people were wrong, they should have known it, and I hope they know it now.
Update: link fixed, I hope.
Nothing More American, Even When It's Foreign
In honor of the Australians who took in Tex's immigrants, I added fried eggs to the cheeseburgers. But of course the hamburger is already a food highly symbolic of the American melding of ideas borne by immigrants from all over the world, and merchants to all of it.
Next time, though, I want one of these. Now you want to talk about improvements that immigrants have brought to America, that looks fantastic.
Fisking That Salon Article.
1 — Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources:
This is nothing new, and the purposes for which the money is put to is radically different in the modern USA than in the Ancient Roman republic.
2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth:
This pretty much has always been the case with career politicians in the USA. And pretty much anywhere else on the planet.
3 — Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US – for the past 100 years — has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.
If you want peace, prepare for war. However, this is the usual cherry picking of historical dates to, as AVI notes, prove whatever they want. If you take the previous years, There is the China intervention (1900), Spanish American War (1898), Philipine insurrection, (1899-1902), The taking of the Chosun Forts (1879), The opening of Japan (1853) (which everybody forgets was pretty much done at gunpoint, although no guns had to be fired)
The various Indian wars:
Chickamauga Wars (1776–1794)
Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)
Nickajack Expedition (1794)
Sabine Expedition (1806)
War of 1812 (1811–1815)
Tecumseh's War (1811–1813)
Creek War (1813–1814)
Peoria War (1813)
First Seminole War (1817–1818)
Winnebago War (1827)
Black Hawk War (1832)
Creek War of 1836 (1836)
Florida–Georgia Border War (1836)
Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
Arikara War (1823)
Osage Indian War (1837)
Texas–Indian Wars (1836–1877)
Comanche Wars (1836–1877)
Antelope Hills Expedition (1858)
Comanche War (1868–1874)
Red River War (1874–1875)
Buffalo Hunters' War (1876–1877)
Cayuse War (1848–1855)
Apache Wars (1849–1924)
Jicarilla War (1849–1855)
Chiricahua Wars (1860–1886)
Tonto War (1871–1875)
Renegade Period (1879–1924)
Victorio's War (1879–1880)
Geronimo's War (1881–1886)
Yuma War (1850–1853)
Ute Wars (1850–1923)
Provo War (1850)
Walker War (1853–1854)
Tintic War (1856)
Black Hawk's War (1865–1872)
White River War (1879)
Ute War (1887)
Bluff War (1914–1915)
Bluff Skirmish (1921)
Posey War (1923)
Sioux Wars (1854–1891)
First Sioux War (1854)
Dakota War (1862)
Colorado War (1863–1865)
Powder River War (1865)
Red Cloud's War (1866–1868)
Great Sioux War (1876–1877)
Ghost Dance War (1890–1891)
Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)
Yakima War (1855–1858)
Puget Sound War (1855–1856)
Coeur d'Alene War (1858)
Mohave War (1858–1859)
Navajo Wars (1858–1864)
Paiute War (1860)
Yavapai Wars (1861–1875)
Snake War (1864–1869)
Hualapai War (1865–1870)
Modoc War (1872–1873)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Crow War (1887)
Bannock Uprising (1895)
Yaqui Uprising (1896)
Battle of Sugar Point (1898)
Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)
Last Massacre (1911)
Battle of Kelley Creek (1911)
Battle of Bear Valley (1918)
The American Civil War, 1861-1865,
The Mexican American War, 1848-1849,
The War of 1812, 1812-1815
The Barbary Pirate war (1806)
The Undeclared Naval War with France in the 1790s
The War of Independence, 1775-1783
So, pretty constantly The US government was paying its soldiers and sailors to shoot at somebody, somewhere. Most of the other large empires, (The British and Russian and Chinese come to mind) were also involved just as heavily, and don't get me started on the subject of 'proxy wars'.
4 — Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic’s Leaders: Foreign wars lead to growing influence, by foreign powers and interests, on the Republic’s political leaders — true for Rome and true for us. In the past century, foreign embassies, agents and lobbyists have proliferated in our nation’s capital. As one specific example: A foreign businessman donated $100 million to Bill Clinton‘s various activities. Clinton “opened doors” for him, and sometimes acted in ways contrary to stated American interests and foreign policy.
Sorry, that's just being a Democrat.
And back to the Romans, there were foreign leaders that caused problems for the Romans--Mithridates, Hannibal, various Macedonian Philips, I suppose Cleopatra, but in the end, the Romans always acted upon somebody. They were never the 'actees'.
5 — Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic’s Internal Policies: As the fortunes of Rome’s aristocracy increasingly derived from foreign lands, Roman policy was shaped to facilitate these fortunes. American billionaires and corporations increasingly influence our elections. In many cases, they are only nominally American – with interests not aligned with those of the American public. For example, Fox News is part of international media group News Corp., with over $30 billion in revenues worldwide. Is Fox News’ jingoism a product of News Corp.’s non-U.S. interests?
The writer has absolutely no knowledge of American economic history. For example: "The China Market" An issue in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries. But really, 'foreign lands' is also a misnomer as far as the Romans are concerned. By the end of the Late Republic, The Roman Empire we all think of was pretty much Roman. There weren't really 'foreign lands' that anyone was making money off of. They were all Roman provinces.
6 — Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republic’s fall, the Roman middle class was crushed — destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, we’ve witnessed rising income inequality, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.
There was never a Roman "Middle Class" the way modern writers want to imagine. I will point the interested to "Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic" by Nathan Rosenstein. The article writer, like most, cannot comprehend that the rise of affluence in other parts of the world, (Asia, Africa, South America) has effects, effects that cannot be wished away (or more to the point, legislated away).
7 — Gerrymandering: Rome’s late Republic used various methods to reduce the power of common citizens. The GOP has so effectively gerrymandered Congressional districts that, even though House Republican candidates received only about 48 percent of the popular vote in the 2012 election — they ended up with the majority (53 percent) of the seats.
The article writer both doesn't understand Roman electoral politics, and also obviously hasn't spent anytime in large American cities which are all run by the Democrat party, and have been since the middle of the last century. I won't even discuss the safe 'minority' districts that both parties have tacitly established.
8 — Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people). Sound familiar? Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example, “There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined.”
The obvious answer to this is that there was more and more bad legislation being proposed between 2009 and 2010 than in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970's combined, but I think we all know that.
Anyway, The Roman Republic NEVER had such a 'spirit of compromise'. Consuls were constantly sued pursued in the courts by their political enemies (after their imperium ended, because during their term of office, they were immune), it was a tactic that predated the first Punic War, IIRC, and one of the reasons Caesar crossed the Rubicon. I won't even get into the naked political violence that the Roman Republic regularly experienced from the end of the Punic Wars onward. Roman politics were blood sports.
The one thing I will note is that the article writer focused on the Late Republic, rather than the Roman Principate (that is, after Augustus became Emperor). Usually in these articles, it's all stuff taken from later than what is mentioned in the article, so I suppose it is an improvement of sorts.
This is nothing new, and the purposes for which the money is put to is radically different in the modern USA than in the Ancient Roman republic.
2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth:
This pretty much has always been the case with career politicians in the USA. And pretty much anywhere else on the planet.
3 — Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US – for the past 100 years — has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.
If you want peace, prepare for war. However, this is the usual cherry picking of historical dates to, as AVI notes, prove whatever they want. If you take the previous years, There is the China intervention (1900), Spanish American War (1898), Philipine insurrection, (1899-1902), The taking of the Chosun Forts (1879), The opening of Japan (1853) (which everybody forgets was pretty much done at gunpoint, although no guns had to be fired)
The various Indian wars:
Chickamauga Wars (1776–1794)
Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)
Nickajack Expedition (1794)
Sabine Expedition (1806)
War of 1812 (1811–1815)
Tecumseh's War (1811–1813)
Creek War (1813–1814)
Peoria War (1813)
First Seminole War (1817–1818)
Winnebago War (1827)
Black Hawk War (1832)
Creek War of 1836 (1836)
Florida–Georgia Border War (1836)
Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
Arikara War (1823)
Osage Indian War (1837)
Texas–Indian Wars (1836–1877)
Comanche Wars (1836–1877)
Antelope Hills Expedition (1858)
Comanche War (1868–1874)
Red River War (1874–1875)
Buffalo Hunters' War (1876–1877)
Cayuse War (1848–1855)
Apache Wars (1849–1924)
Jicarilla War (1849–1855)
Chiricahua Wars (1860–1886)
Tonto War (1871–1875)
Renegade Period (1879–1924)
Victorio's War (1879–1880)
Geronimo's War (1881–1886)
Yuma War (1850–1853)
Ute Wars (1850–1923)
Provo War (1850)
Walker War (1853–1854)
Tintic War (1856)
Black Hawk's War (1865–1872)
White River War (1879)
Ute War (1887)
Bluff War (1914–1915)
Bluff Skirmish (1921)
Posey War (1923)
Sioux Wars (1854–1891)
First Sioux War (1854)
Dakota War (1862)
Colorado War (1863–1865)
Powder River War (1865)
Red Cloud's War (1866–1868)
Great Sioux War (1876–1877)
Ghost Dance War (1890–1891)
Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)
Yakima War (1855–1858)
Puget Sound War (1855–1856)
Coeur d'Alene War (1858)
Mohave War (1858–1859)
Navajo Wars (1858–1864)
Paiute War (1860)
Yavapai Wars (1861–1875)
Snake War (1864–1869)
Hualapai War (1865–1870)
Modoc War (1872–1873)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Crow War (1887)
Bannock Uprising (1895)
Yaqui Uprising (1896)
Battle of Sugar Point (1898)
Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)
Last Massacre (1911)
Battle of Kelley Creek (1911)
Battle of Bear Valley (1918)
The American Civil War, 1861-1865,
The Mexican American War, 1848-1849,
The War of 1812, 1812-1815
The Barbary Pirate war (1806)
The Undeclared Naval War with France in the 1790s
The War of Independence, 1775-1783
So, pretty constantly The US government was paying its soldiers and sailors to shoot at somebody, somewhere. Most of the other large empires, (The British and Russian and Chinese come to mind) were also involved just as heavily, and don't get me started on the subject of 'proxy wars'.
4 — Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic’s Leaders: Foreign wars lead to growing influence, by foreign powers and interests, on the Republic’s political leaders — true for Rome and true for us. In the past century, foreign embassies, agents and lobbyists have proliferated in our nation’s capital. As one specific example: A foreign businessman donated $100 million to Bill Clinton‘s various activities. Clinton “opened doors” for him, and sometimes acted in ways contrary to stated American interests and foreign policy.
Sorry, that's just being a Democrat.
And back to the Romans, there were foreign leaders that caused problems for the Romans--Mithridates, Hannibal, various Macedonian Philips, I suppose Cleopatra, but in the end, the Romans always acted upon somebody. They were never the 'actees'.
5 — Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic’s Internal Policies: As the fortunes of Rome’s aristocracy increasingly derived from foreign lands, Roman policy was shaped to facilitate these fortunes. American billionaires and corporations increasingly influence our elections. In many cases, they are only nominally American – with interests not aligned with those of the American public. For example, Fox News is part of international media group News Corp., with over $30 billion in revenues worldwide. Is Fox News’ jingoism a product of News Corp.’s non-U.S. interests?
The writer has absolutely no knowledge of American economic history. For example: "The China Market" An issue in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries. But really, 'foreign lands' is also a misnomer as far as the Romans are concerned. By the end of the Late Republic, The Roman Empire we all think of was pretty much Roman. There weren't really 'foreign lands' that anyone was making money off of. They were all Roman provinces.
6 — Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republic’s fall, the Roman middle class was crushed — destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, we’ve witnessed rising income inequality, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.
There was never a Roman "Middle Class" the way modern writers want to imagine. I will point the interested to "Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic" by Nathan Rosenstein. The article writer, like most, cannot comprehend that the rise of affluence in other parts of the world, (Asia, Africa, South America) has effects, effects that cannot be wished away (or more to the point, legislated away).
7 — Gerrymandering: Rome’s late Republic used various methods to reduce the power of common citizens. The GOP has so effectively gerrymandered Congressional districts that, even though House Republican candidates received only about 48 percent of the popular vote in the 2012 election — they ended up with the majority (53 percent) of the seats.
The article writer both doesn't understand Roman electoral politics, and also obviously hasn't spent anytime in large American cities which are all run by the Democrat party, and have been since the middle of the last century. I won't even discuss the safe 'minority' districts that both parties have tacitly established.
8 — Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people). Sound familiar? Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example, “There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined.”
The obvious answer to this is that there was more and more bad legislation being proposed between 2009 and 2010 than in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970's combined, but I think we all know that.
Anyway, The Roman Republic NEVER had such a 'spirit of compromise'. Consuls were constantly sued pursued in the courts by their political enemies (after their imperium ended, because during their term of office, they were immune), it was a tactic that predated the first Punic War, IIRC, and one of the reasons Caesar crossed the Rubicon. I won't even get into the naked political violence that the Roman Republic regularly experienced from the end of the Punic Wars onward. Roman politics were blood sports.
The one thing I will note is that the article writer focused on the Late Republic, rather than the Roman Principate (that is, after Augustus became Emperor). Usually in these articles, it's all stuff taken from later than what is mentioned in the article, so I suppose it is an improvement of sorts.
Heh. Indeed.
The Sage of Knoxville points out this story about Saturday Night Live and NBCUniversal being sued by their hordes of unpaid interns, and notes: "The funny thing is, the people they’re suing probably have a “Living Wage” bumper sticker on the back of their Tesla."
By coincidence a Millennial I know recently sent me a link to a photo meme called "Old Economy Steven." This was my favorite of them.
By coincidence a Millennial I know recently sent me a link to a photo meme called "Old Economy Steven." This was my favorite of them.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)