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I don't know if I would draw a particularly strong parallel between Julius Caesar and August Caesar in the Roman column and the current administration in the ot
by jacques_chester 8y ago
I don't know if I would draw a particularly strong parallel between Julius Caesar and August Caesar in the Roman column and the current administration in the other column.
- mooreds 8y agoI agree, it isn't a straightforward comparison. Suspect the USA see more and more demagogues/populists as the years go on (cue Idiocracy comparison), but right now we are in early days of decay. As the author of the book says, we can still walk back from the edge.
- anothergoogler 8y agoWhat's it like being able to see into the future?
- mooreds 8y agoAmazing! I predict you and your snark will be very successful :). But on serious note, do you not plan for the future or speculate on it?
- anothergoogler 8y agoNot with such confidence to say things like "we are in the early days of decay."
- throwaway98121 8y agoI’m not sure what your sarcasm contributes to the discussion. I think op has a fair point. If we remove our political views, we can still see that our government and politics are extremely divided. Furthermore, wealth is accumulating into the hands of a very few. What should be democratic outcomes are substantially influenced by capital and the ones who possess capital. You could argue that our politics were always divided. I haven’t forgotten how toxic it was during the Clinton administration (again, I’m not blaming either party or taking sides). What’s making it worse today is with access to the internet and social media, everything is amplified times 100. Spreading misinformation is a lot easier and we’re dealing with adversarial nation states exploiting that to our detriment. Personally, I don’t think this is sustainable in the long term. Now- let me mix in my more biased opinions. In the country my parents immigrated from, doing things such as jailing or threatening to jail your political opponents, labeling all your political opponents as corrupt, criminals, etc was a common thing. Over time, it only got worse over there. We are seeing those authoritarian tendencies here, and that’s the real terrifying part.
- mythrwy 8y agoI see your point, but perhaps on occasion the labels of corrupt and criminal are accurate. The corrupt and criminal should be called out. (never mind that those calling them out are often the same thing).
- gumby 8y agoMore Honorius except for the lack of a pet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorius_(emperor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorius_(emperor)
- grey-area 8y agoCrassus seems like a pretty good fit for trump, though he didn't suffer from bone spurs.
- gumby 8y agoI really don't see Trump crucifying a slave ever 75 feet over a hundred miles. In fact I can't imagine him walking 100 miles -- and that's a long trip for a golf cart.
- gumby 8y agoWhoever downvoted my comment (which you are welcome to of course): are you not familiar for what Crassus is famous for at the end of the third Servile war?
- tareqak 8y agoI don’t think the parallel there is necessarily the one we should care about. The article and the book author both talk about economic inequality and loss of faith in public institutions to solve their problems.