Political Decay
Moving to Overcome Violence and Restore Democracy
by Evaggelos Vallianatos
Political decay is a disease afflicting all societies. Like Aristotle said, all men are political animals but rarely honest political animals.
The Greeks invented political theory and democracy. They practiced democracy for centuries but their political failure to unite did them in. They succumbed to the Romans who used what they learned from them against them.
The Romans thought of themselves as exceptional people destined to rule others. Athenaios, a Greek of the second century on excellent terms with Romans, tells us that the Romans sucked the life out of their subject people. In 410, barbarians captured Rome.
Now America is uttering the slogans of Rome. Republican politicians competing for the opportunity to “defeat” the Democratic president Barack Obama in the November 2012 elections, ceasesly proclaim the “exceptionalism” of America.
The two millionaire Republican Mormons, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, want to further expand the hegemony of corporations and gut environmental, health and social protection. Romney keeps repeating his love for corporate America as well as his determination to expand the global reach of the Pentagon. (more…)
