Jump to content
UNRV Ancient Roman Empire Forums

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/15/2016 in all areas

  1. If you can get hold of the Cambridge Ancient History (2d edition) Vol X pg 164-165; there E Gruen laments that "Confusion in the sources prevents a confident reconstruction of events, geography or chronology." and cites the sources (Florus II.33.48-50, Orosius VI.21.3-5) and "scholarly discussions" in a footnote. One of the discussions noted (which is in English) is R. Syme "The Spanish War of Augustus", American Journal of Philology 55 (1934) 293-317.
    1 point
  2. Just read the (Damn long!) article and have to say I agree with a lot of it. Quite a lot of it links with the reasons behind some at least of the Brexit vote. It wasn't that people were always violently anti-European, it was that certain portions of the media stirred up "Anti-European Regulations" amongst the semi-interested. Those who were really interested investigated and found that the vast majority of the claims were rubbish, so dismissed them. A lot of people didn't. In addition, the Exit vote was largely from those areas in England and Wales that have suffered since WW2 from the dismantling of traditional industry and the lack of jobs - as all of the 'replacement' jobs tended to be in the cities rather than the towns. I know this from personal experience, having spent a long time unemployed. Looking at the public-school elite who run the country makes me angry, simply because they appear to be mass-produced and although they stand for different political parties (think David Cameron and Ed Miliband) they both struggle to communicate with the 'ordinary' people in the UK. We are discounted. That is one of the reasons why people voted against them. In effect, Brexit was in part a protest vote against a narrow ruling elite based in the middle class with no connection with the reality of working-class problems. The article suggests that the same is true - again at least in part - in the US, where part of Trump's appeal lies in the fact that he does not communicate in the same way as Clinton et al, and so appeals to a 'working class' which feels its problems and fears are being ignored. As to the 'Democracies' part of the thread, they only seem to end when a demagogue arises who plays on peoples' fears to the extent that he can subvert the system to the point where he can assume total control. This can really ONLY happen in a democracy, as it is only in a democracy where he can achieve power by the 'will of the people'. Otherwise, his rise must be violent and arouse the likelihood of violent opposition. Having said all of that, it should be remembered that in reality many factors influenced the outcome of both votes, and that the rise of Hitler in Germany (the last major Western democracy to end) was easier because of the ill-feeling towards politicians caused by the end of WW1 and the fragmented nature of politics in the Weimar Republic. Hopefully, in both the UK and the US anger towards the political system has not yet reached the point where one man can overthrow it.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...