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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Thank you for leading by example. The only way is forward. Can we avoid the fate of empires? https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-repeat-history-part-3

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Peter Hawthorne's avatar

I think you have completely missed Cicero’s point. Cicero was condemning the over indulgence of the Piscinarii, particularly in a Rome whose attitudes to luxury had changed after the Verrines. To quote De Officiis: “And if we will only bear in mind the superiority and dignity of our nature, we shall realise how wrong it is to abandon ourselves to excess and to live in luxury and voluptuousness, and how right it is to live in thrift, self-denial, simplicity, and sobriety.” Cicero was not just talking about these men to condemn their detachment from governance. More importantly though, I think you misunderstand the nature of the Republic and that to apply it to contemporary America makes no sense. It was an aristocracy, run by a small band of senatorial elite, so any sense of duty comes from that, and not their wealth. Maybe you haven’t misunderstood, and you are advocating a plutocratic governance of the United States, because in my mind the only people with a duty to serve are those who were democratically elected.

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