4 ms·

In a composition of some days, in a perusal of some hours, six hundred years have rolled away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted to a fleeting m

In a composition of some days, in a perusal of some hours, six hundred years have rolled away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted to a fleeting moment: the grave is ever beside the throne: the success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by the loss of his prize and our immortal reason survives and disdains the sixty phantoms of kings who have passed before our eyes, and faintly dwell on our remembrance. The observation that, in every age and climate, ambition has prevailed with the same commanding energy, may abate the surprise of a philosopher: but while he condemns the vanity, he may search the motive, of this universal desire to obtain and hold the sceptre of dominion. ...I shall not descant on the vulgar topics of the misery of kings; but I may surely observe, that their condition, of all others, is the most pregnant with fear, and the least susceptible of hope. -- Edward Gibbon, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
Copywriters for republics always had a knack for this sort of invidious prose. (For all practical purposes, England has been a republic since the XIII century, hiring and terminating rent-a-kings at will.)
- scrumper 9y ago
  What on earth are you talking about? I mean all of it: Republics, invidious prose, copywriters, a literary precedent, England being a republic, rent-a-kings... Eh?
  - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
    Gibbon was indulging a pastime of republican apologists, which is badmouthing anything about monarchy. In this case just sneering, but it stretches to inciting assassination - 'sic semper tyrannis' has been a thing for some twenty five centuries. Way back when, the Roman aristocrats killed their king and instituted a wildly successful senatorial republic which lasted some five centuries. Later, the English aristocrats, going with the flow of the times, had their republic based on the Magna Carta - which kept a nominal king, serving at the pleasure of Parliament. Those kings were hired and fired at will, sometimes with loss of head, like Charles I, or just the threat of it, like James II. Long before multinational corporations, there was international recruiting for the job, which is why German aristocrats had to change names for WWI. Copywriters write advertisements, which is how governments get picked nowadays. They put a shiny gloss on unpleasant facts, or make the audience believe claims which are hard to prove with facts. Industrial manufacture of consent, or advanced belief production, whatever, it works. (Since you asked. But do your own reading.)
draw_down 9y ago
Man, I can never understand stuff written like this.
- cfmcdonald 9y ago
  My translation to casual modern English: In just a few days of writing - a few hours of reading - six hundred years have passed, and the life or reign of a king seems but an instant. Death is ever present, and the criminal who seizes the throne immediately loses it. From our remote position we look down on the rapid passing of sixty dead kings, who together barely make an impression on us. We might be surprised at their ambition for a throne that seems to bring nothing but death. But that surprise is lessened by the fact that the ambitious turn up everywhere and always. Nonetheless we might wonder why there is this constant desire to rule. ...I won't bore you with a long discussion of how miserable it is to be king, but it's clear that they are pretty miserable.

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago

Copywriters for republics always had a knack for this sort of invidious prose. (For all practical purposes, England has been a republic since the XIII century, hiring and terminating rent-a-kings at will.)

scrumper 9y ago
What on earth are you talking about? I mean all of it: Republics, invidious prose, copywriters, a literary precedent, England being a republic, rent-a-kings... Eh?
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
  Gibbon was indulging a pastime of republican apologists, which is badmouthing anything about monarchy. In this case just sneering, but it stretches to inciting assassination - 'sic semper tyrannis' has been a thing for some twenty five centuries. Way back when, the Roman aristocrats killed their king and instituted a wildly successful senatorial republic which lasted some five centuries. Later, the English aristocrats, going with the flow of the times, had their republic based on the Magna Carta - which kept a nominal king, serving at the pleasure of Parliament. Those kings were hired and fired at will, sometimes with loss of head, like Charles I, or just the threat of it, like James II. Long before multinational corporations, there was international recruiting for the job, which is why German aristocrats had to change names for WWI. Copywriters write advertisements, which is how governments get picked nowadays. They put a shiny gloss on unpleasant facts, or make the audience believe claims which are hard to prove with facts. Industrial manufacture of consent, or advanced belief production, whatever, it works. (Since you asked. But do your own reading.)

draw_down 9y ago

Man, I can never understand stuff written like this.

cfmcdonald 9y ago
My translation to casual modern English: In just a few days of writing - a few hours of reading - six hundred years have passed, and the life or reign of a king seems but an instant. Death is ever present, and the criminal who seizes the throne immediately loses it. From our remote position we look down on the rapid passing of sixty dead kings, who together barely make an impression on us. We might be surprised at their ambition for a throne that seems to bring nothing but death. But that surprise is lessened by the fact that the ambitious turn up everywhere and always. Nonetheless we might wonder why there is this constant desire to rule. ...I won't bore you with a long discussion of how miserable it is to be king, but it's clear that they are pretty miserable.