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An American Satyricon [VDH]
National Review ^ | 8/27/2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/27/2013 6:49:48 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross

Our elites would be right at home in Petronius’s world of debauchery and bored melodrama.

Sometime in the mid-first century a.d., an otherwise little known consular official, Gaius Petronius, wrote a brilliant satirical novel about the gross and pretentious new Roman-imperial elite. The Satyricon is an often-cruel parody about how the Roman agrarian republic of old had degenerated into a wealth-obsessed, empty society of wannabe new elites, flush with money, and both obsessed with and bored with sex. Most of the Satyricon is lost. But in its longest surviving chapter — “Dinner with Trimalchio” — Petronius might as well have been describing our own 21st-century nomenklatura.

For the buffoonish libertine guests of the host Trimalchio, food and sex are in such surfeit that they have to be repackaged in bizarre and repulsive ways. Think of someone like the feminist mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner, who once railed about the need to enforce sexual-harassment laws, now only to discover ever creepier ways to grope, pat, grab, squeeze, pinch, and slobber on 18 co-workers and veritable strangers, whether in their 20s or over 60. Unfortunately, the sexual luridness does not necessarily end with Filner’s resignation; one of his would-be replacements is already under attack by his opponents on allegations that as a city councilman he was caught masturbating in the city-hall restroom between public meetings.

In good Petronian fashion, the narcissist Anthony Weiner sent pictures of his own genitalia to near-strangers, under the Latinate pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” Was Eliot Spitzer any better? As the governor of New York, he preferred anonymous numbers — “Client #9” — to false names, real to virtual sex, very young to mature women, and buying rather than romancing his partners. Is there some Petronian prerequisite in our age that our ascendant politicians must be perverts?

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cyrus; miley; omg; vdh
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

We “be cool, bro”


21 posted on 08/27/2013 9:55:24 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Gun-free zones" equal "Target-rich environment.")
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To: RedMonqey

***I suggest watching “I, Claudius”,****

I saw it on PBS about thirty years ago. It was great!

One person wrote into the editor of a newspaper about how could such a show have (gasp) NUDITY, but not regular TV.

The editor said that nudity is ok in a classic work but not in Hollywood clap-trap!


22 posted on 08/27/2013 11:56:43 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: lavaroise
Ain't she cute!


23 posted on 08/27/2013 11:59:37 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
I saw it on PBS about thirty years ago. It was great!

That's when I first saw it.

On PBS...

In the Afternoon..

As an 14 yr old it was pretty heddy stuff but it did get me into reading Roman history and not the dry, boring stuff taught at school....
24 posted on 08/27/2013 12:07:39 PM PDT by RedMonqey ("Gun-free zones" equal "Target-rich environment.")
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To: Servant of the Cross
Is there some Petronian prerequisite in our age that our ascendant politicians must be perverts?

Apparently so. And apparently there are plenty of people dumb enough or apathetic enough to still vote for them.

25 posted on 08/27/2013 12:08:04 PM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

“Where are my eagles!!!!!” Shouted the Emperor.

(meaning the Legions lost in the German Forests)

I remember that scene!


26 posted on 08/27/2013 12:11:45 PM PDT by RedMonqey ("Gun-free zones" equal "Target-rich environment.")
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