With the 4th of July but a mere hour away, I'd like to take a brief moment to remember the Ancient Greeks.
It's been contended that libertarian principles can't be applied in a real life scenario (yes, because the socialist program and progressive agenda has worked out so great), and that there is no real world example of libertarianism at work within a nation-state framework.
Not true.
Ancient Greece was a model for classical liberal and even libertarian principles. The Greeks bestowed upon the West the concept of liberty. A free and democratic society that could function free of a despotic bureaucracy. They came up with remarkable ways (based on the simple principle of voluntary action) to fairly collect taxes, for example, and provide for infrastructure. To them, the despotic rule of the Orient was incompatible to man's quest for liberty.
Our concept of liberty and tyranny today is so confused and battered from how the Greeks saw it, it's an embarrassment. But this is for another time.
The United States is but the latest great civilization in the middle of the battle for liberty.
Sadly, just like Greece was to eventually fall before tyrants, America has done so also.
Ancient Greece and the United States, though separated by roughly three thousand years, fought the same battle and wrestled with the same problems of how to keep people free from unjust and unworthy despots and tyranny.
When one reads Ancient Greece they can't but see the voice of modern libertarianism in it.
Something tells me a Second Renaissance is in order.
Greece also created the concept of tyrants.
ReplyDeleteAnd that ancient Greek democracy was quite limited... to the rich, to the powerful to the non-slave, to men.
Limited but I disagree with created tyrants. Indeed, Athenian tax abuses led to their ultimate down fall but tyranny was a natural state of man until the Greeks. Oriental despotism is what Greece reacted to and thus created the concept of individual liberty.
ReplyDeleteLook up "tyrant"...
ReplyDeletetyrant (Greek τύραννος, tyrannos)
They actually invented the term and the office. At the time, a tyrant was merely a strong, take-charge, leader and had no character connotation.
In certain times of a society's life, people clamor for a strong leader who will take charge and "fix" what ails the society. It's often a mistake. So often that we have come to the modern definition.
My bad. I confused tyrant with despot.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bad boy. You are, of course, correct.