Rate This: 0  0

Or to clothe and feed our families?

forced to live out the same tasks over and over each day, either putting stress on our bodies or our minds?

entrapped in the same office or place of work daily , monthly , yearly?

Never rewarded for our good work , watching those born into money prevailing when we work 10 times as hard as they do?

limited to only basic education for we are not wealthy?

Struggling to keep our houses, fill our fridge , though we work so hard?

losing family members as they work in dangerous places of work?

enlisted to fight when the country goes to war?

Having little or no spare time to ourselves?

Unable to have the large family that we really want because of the cost of upkeep?

even on benefits forced to live out the same day over and over.

looking after our sick family members not able to access an acceptable amount of care anywhere else?

Told what we should and shouldnt do by rules , regulations , small print with many forced to break these rules to keep themselves alive when they have no homes , food etc..?

trading goods with one and other or living on hand me downs and freebies from the kindness of others?

Many people just breaking even rarely happy a large amount ill due to stress of money worries, jobs, life in general?

sounds rather like…

sounds like…

like…

SLAVERY! hmmm……

oh dear, i do not think we have the right to judge the greeks in such a way when we seem to suffer many of the problems they had but in a modern world.
And it hasnt been that long since we stopped hanging folk either now , has it…….

Rate This: 0  0

Rate This: 0  0

(I just guessed how that works. Am I slow or what ?)

Don’t see how (how I’m missing the point, that is) ; are you not saying that the BNP advances by playing upon the people’s fear of chaos (even where none exists) ?

Was this not precisely what Hitler used ? The fire in the Reichstagsgebäude — actually started by a disaffected Dutch communist (sc. not a member of the German or even the Dutch CP), who made a comprehensive confession — was misappropriated by Hitler as a pretext for the rounding up of communists and, eventually, the suspension of the Reichstag.

The Treaty had been seen has the principal cause of the economic hardship and associated disorder in Germany since the end of the Great War. His rhetoric against its provisions, the Western Powers and America was warmly received, his apparently unconstitutional actions being received with some relief.

Rate This: 0  0

Rate This: 0  0

Rate This: 0  0

“… the propensity of a society to embrace what seems like order when in chaos, such as the rise of the BNP. …”

I suspect the rise in popularity of the BNP — a perfectly good bank, by the way, that even sponsors the French Open — has little to do with any sense of chaos but reflects the failure by the three main parties to address the concerns — particularly over Europe and political correctness — of those that turn to it (or to the UKIP).

“… Hitler … whatever his personal intentions … was elected by the German people.”

The Nazis were meticulous in complying with the law ; one might even say they developed the principle of deniability, Hitler always distancing himself from the activities of the SA (brown-shirts), for example, even arresting and punishing its members.

Advocates of proportional representation might like to reflect on the fact that, had Weimarer Germany not had proportional representation (which favours minority factions), the national socialists would not have been able to attain power through election.

Rate This: 0  0

Rate This: 0  0

I was not considering the tyrants of antiquity however, but commenting on the propensity of a society to embrace what seems like order when in chaos, such as the rise of the BNP. You mentioned Hitler and whatever his personal intentions were, he was elected by the german people. Stalin was almost a god yet utterly cruel and people were reduced to the most disgusting ends simply to stay alive – when you are having babies to grow your own food, that’s a tyrant. N.Korea, Cuba, all these places hold their leaders in almost religious awe. Compare Persia, which had religious tolerance with Cyrus the great, with Rome and say Marcellus’s taking of Syracuse. There you can compare the different atmosphere of being a member of society – being Roman meant being Roman above all else, like being American. Citizenship is almost a religion. When politics take on a religious fervour it doesn’t bode well. Men, who are cowards to the backbone, will die for an idea like a hero.

Rate This: 0  0

Right in all respects : the ancients were meticulous ; the lavatories, communal or otherwise, were limited — naturally — by the available technology.

The Romans were the masters of the bath, because of what they achieved in the management of water. Some of their aqueducts survive in working condition after two millennia.

* * *

Philipa on tyranny

I think we really need to be careful in assessing the tyrants of antiquity. The trouble lies in the pejoration of the word ‘tyrant’, to-day taken to mean one such as Stalin or Hitler, both of whom might reasonably be assumed to have started with evil intent.

The objectives of the true tyrants of the ancient world — sc. the usurpers — were usually honourable. Although Hitler brought about certain improvements — in comparison with the economy and Laura Norder under the Weimarer Republic — his intention always was to establish the police state that Germany became in the Nazizeit and to persecute the Jews.

Peisistratus is said to have been a man that could walk abroad in Attica and exchange banter with those tilling the fields ; can you imagine Gordon Brown’s going out without his RDPG body-guard ? Never mind Hitler.

By the way : I concur in your recommendation for P.M.

(In the other matter : I think this is what is called a troll ; were I you, I shouldn’t waste my time on it.)

* * *

Derek also : thank you.

ΠΞ

Rate This: 0  0