End of an Era
Civilizations are impermanent, according to optimists. Simple accumulations of wealth and power are bound to fail, according to pessimists. I am somewhere in between, a firm believer that nothing can be sustained over the long term, with human fallibility precipitating the final collapse. The greatest of all early civilization was that of Athens. No society since 450 B.C. has even come close to matching it. What country or state could match philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes, artist-architects like Phidias, and leaders such as Pericles? Not to mention military geniuses like Themistocles and Miltiades. The Athenians were so wise that at times they elected leaders by drawing lots. They instinctively knew that power corrupts, hence they drew lots and the winners were top bananas for one year only. Yet this perfect society of about 30,000 lasted for a few generations at best. Sparta, and ambition to expand, ended the greatest civic experiment ever.
Sparta, of course, lasted even less. Famous throughout history for its doomed stand at Thermopylae, and immortalized as the epitome of martial prowess, this bravest of all societies simply ran out of men. (My mother, grandmother, and grandfather and their grandparents, and their grandparents, were all pure Spartans, and I’m rat
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
