Victor Davis Hanson // National Review
The ancient Greeks created new words like “paradox” and “irony” to describe the wide gap between what people profess and assume, and what they actually do and suffer.
Remember the blind prophet Teiresias of ancient drama. In the carnage of Athenian tragedy, he alone usually ends up foreseeing danger better than did those with keen eyesight
After a catastrophic plague and endless war, ancient democratic Athens was stripped of its majestic pretensions. Soon it was conducting mass executions — on majority votes of the people.
Throughout history, revolutions often do not end up as their initial architects planned. The idealists who ended the French monarchy in 1789 thought they could replace it with a constitutional republic.
Instead, they sparked a reign of terror, the guillotine, and mass frenzy. Yet the radicals who hijacked the original revolution and began beheading their enemies soon were themselves guillotined.
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Re Re This is so bleak of prospects, I think it one of your better postings as it makes one furious to think. I previously commented that: *That there are only two viable candidates-Trump and socialist...but the mindless hatred is so over-the-top, that I had to remind myself that while true the Blue (-blood) lower jaw of California, the fulcrum of Illinois, and the upper jaw of New York/mid-east are given the grip of optics, that grip advertorialized by the main-scream media is still the tribal 8% only being magnified by the main-scream. Which leads me to ask "if ANY non-8% figure would also be receiving the socialist Vitriol as well?And the answer is likely, "Yes." As such, like an over-extended opening on a pair of water-pump pliers, the center of the country is too big for that grip to have real mechanical advantage. So where is the push coming from? The timings of Leftist activities, as a whole, is also that panic of someone past due on the rent and about to be evicted...and whose got 3T in credit up for borrowing, anyway? Like the beer-bug, the financial #'s don't add up either-sure smells like B.O.-era panic politicking to me. *Viral ubiquity: We keep deploying viral testing from where the ripple has already spread. We don't fight fires like that because that would defeat the objective: containment. Anti-body testing needs to be where we "think" SARS2-Covid is not. 2 weeks+ and still awaiting the big outbreak among rioters-it makes one wish it would really happen but to do so would not be honorable. nor fair to the innocent. Has herd immunity, then, already established itself too? The stats, Disney, and Universal Parks (FL), Opera singers in Germany, and beach goers don't support the prison terminology of the state lock-downs. *Heads or Tails? Senator Dodd defined it best in his 1985 interview: un-American activity=un-Constitutional activity. Why didn't they just say that in the first place? Most likely the old debate rule, if you give away your argument then your opponent knows how to counter it. Hopefully, we're letting the Left go first only it's mixed with Ali's "Roper Dope", so hold on, we're going for a ride! *Generals: well, with all due respect, the old goto lessons from the collusion, impeachment, and Covid "authorities shows one common status: "Compromised". (Follow the money. In AUS, thousands in cash, that were walk-in delivered via large plain plastic shopping bags have been officially documented but like Benghazi and U1 the pursuant evidence seems to be shelved with the "Ark" of Indiana Jones. Is Trump's post-election evidence the real impetus of the Collectivist panic? *What was pointed out as "the long defeat" has, traditionally, been regarded as Perseverance. An old Churchill story surrounding the Coventry Myth goes, that resuming his original planned visit to Coventry, he and his driver discover that where the had planned to be earlier was now a bomb crater. His driver remarks, that it was "luck" that they were not there the day before, to which the Prime Minister says nothing but with his index finger merely points Upward. We would do well to remember from whence the Constitution's Rights which the government cannot take nor infringe upon, come. *Pop culture update: Star Trek prequel to demonstrate that Representation and Inclusivity are greater than Diversity-i kid you not...
I love and agree with all your work! I teach criminology at Fresno city and Clovis community college; once this ever gets lifted , I would love for you come speak. As a retired Fresno county sgt. deputy sheriff and with a son working for Fresno Pd , these violent protests are hard to watch. Higher education personnel lean hard to the left, so have to bite my tongue Any thoughts
I forsee many liberally minded everyday Joe and Jills's apologizing to we, the people, who warned against socialism, anarchy and the radical changes that Democrat leaders and wealthy liberals pushed for, in the event they assume the Presidency. I'll never accept their apology.