Posted on 05/01/2025 4:11:21 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The parallels between the state of our country and the spectacular fall of Athens are too disturbing to ignore.
The Athenian democracy fell to Sparta in 404 B.C. That disaster was not inevitable; it was the result of a series of poor decisions, themselves the result of greed and self-interest on the part of various factions.
Had the Athenians not followed the advice of a charismatic but rash leader, Alcibiades (whom they then exiled, driving him to the other side, where he served as an adviser before returning to Athens to unleash further mischief), they might not have sent their fleet to Syracuse, where it was destroyed. Nor would they have built the wall that “protected” the city — for a short while — but also walled themselves off from their lucrative silver mines and agricultural fields. Had they not walled themselves into crowded conditions, the plague that ravaged Athens in the last years of the Peloponnesian War might have been less severe. If they had not alienated their allies with their arrogance and burdensome taxation, they might not have driven some of them into the Spartan camp, hastening their own isolation and defeat.
In the end, nothing could save the Athenian democracy from itself. There was too much of the arrogance of a great power; too much willingness to follow the lead of impetuous leaders; too much risk, including military actions far from home; too much economic and class division; and there was not the wise conservatism that makes provision for unforeseen events, such as the decimating plague that struck Athens in 430 B.C., continuing until 426, reducing available manpower and upsetting the social order.
History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Under Obama and Biden, America’s military power has been undermined as funds were unwisely shifted to “social justice”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I meant Charles Manson and I forgot to add Angela Davis.
So many more but those are the familiar ones.
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