Originally Posted by
Melki
You wanna play with me, Bez? OK then but let me warn you: I'm a big fish.
Today's European Union is comparable in many ways to the Roman Republic in its waning days (all the ways lead to Rome), just before it collapsed. Too bloated, too sick, suffering a long agony. It was a period of civil war between the proponents of the people's interests (the populares) and the partisans of the established order (the optimates). The Senate (= the European Parliament) was too blind and resourceless to face reality. Authoritarian military chiefs (the imperatores) like Julius Caesar, Pompey and Mark Anthony (= Orbán, Le Pen & Wilders) became ambitious and exploited the fears of the people.
Facing these tyrants, philosophers like Cicero, who wanted to preserve the Republic at all costs, were powerless (Anthony ordered his execution), and nothing could prevent the Roman Republic from turning into a terrible Empire, full of mad dictators (Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Commodus...)
Well, I believe in wise philosophers like Cicero, not in populist leaders like Caesar.
What about you, Bez? You seem to be very strong when it comes to sarcastic posts, but not brainy comments. :rolleyes: