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| Science & Technology |
| The scab & the wound beneath by Victor Davis Hanson |
| 2020-04-25 |
| [The New Criterion] An overriding theme of the historian Thucydides’ monumental history of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.) is the fragility of civilization. In extremis, when both the elites and masses lose their thin veneer of culture, society can turn feral quickly. During a horrific war, plague, or revolution, even a wealthy and sophisticated civilization such as that of the classical Greek city-states regresses in a second to its innate state. And what follows from these natural and man-made disasters is not pretty. Still, these calamities can be tragically instructional. Hypocrisies arise. Pretexts vanish. Fundamental but forgotten truths, easily masked in times of calm, reemerge. From Thucydides’ warnings, we can glean that even suburban elites in Range Rovers can in a day be reduced to tugging over toilet paper rolls at Whole Foods. During the twenty-seven-year-long Peloponnesian War, Athens, the most liberal and confident of some 1,500 Greek city-states, proved the readiest to butcher prisoners and civilians. And it did so en masse at Mytilene, Scione, and Melos. Thucydides noted that during the plague of 430–29, the most virtuous of Athenians (“especially the case with such as made any pretensions to goodness”) perished along with the selfish. Indeed, their courage in abandoning social distancing to aid the infectious sealed their doom (“honor made them unsparing of themselves in their attendance in their friends’ houses”). Throughout the savage revolution on the island of Corcyra (Corfu), honesty of language and moderation in politics were among the first casualties. And once the violence and body count mounted, extremism in thought and action followed: Highly recommended reading: A War Like No Other |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #19 |
| Posted by: Thruque Scourge of the Veps9595 2020-04-25 20:31 |
| #18 ... and when we say "countries", we mean real countries with a beer, an airline, and a football team/nukes. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2020-04-25 18:31 |
| #17 ^So, how many countries in Western Europe? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-04-25 17:36 |
| #16 "...that in terms of deaths per million, a 330-million-person America was not “first,” given that almost all European countries, with the exception of Germany, had suffered a far higher fatality to population rate." That is not true though. Only 9 European countries (11 if you want to include San Marino and Andorra) have a higher fatality to population rate. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2020-04-25 17:32 |
| #15 #8 - missed the color, in my excitement to agree. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-04-25 17:15 |
| #14 #11 Yea, well, my ex wife tells me I've partial color blindness. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-04-25 14:22 |
| #13 Procopius? |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-04-25 14:16 |
| #12 VDH is a national treasure. An honest, wise and courageous man who refuses to partake in the academic / media / political Shitshows. There must be a classical figure he resembles but I lack his erudition and can't think of the right one... |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-04-25 14:14 |
| #11 Fred assigns the colors. Mine is light green. His has blue, but yeah, they're close |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-04-25 14:09 |
| #10 ^To my eye, you & Glenmore have the same color. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-04-25 13:16 |
| #9 The book ref was mine. It's a great book. VDH makes history accessible and entertaining |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-04-25 13:06 |
| #8 #6's not me. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-04-25 12:47 |
| #7 VDH tears them all a new one. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2020-04-25 12:45 |
| #6 I agree with grom about A War Like No Other. It took me a while to accept that it was written like no other history book (I ever read). |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-04-25 12:41 |
| #5 A key takeaway, but only one of several. Perhaps not of Athens, GA. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-04-25 12:29 |
| #4 ^ Schnork! |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-04-25 11:01 |
| #3 What a great article. I look forward to AOC's dissenting essay about Thucydides. |
| Posted by: Matt 2020-04-25 10:46 |
| #2 I want all hipsters to bitterly cling to their beloved vibrant urban neighborhoods. To the death. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-04-25 09:37 |
| #1 In times like these, for once it was deemed wiser to live in Sparta or in rural Utah than in the bustle of cosmopolitan Athens or Manhattan. A key takeaway, but only one of several. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-04-25 09:01 |