The scab & the wound beneath

New Criterion ^ | May 2020 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Sir Napsalot]

An overriding theme of the historian Thucydides’ monumental history of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.) is the fragility of civilization. In extremis, when both the elites and masses lose their thin veneer of culture, society can turn feral quickly. During a horrific war, plague, or revolution, even a wealthy and sophisticated civilization such as that of the classical Greek city-states regresses in a second to its innate state. And what follows from these natural and man-made disasters is not pretty. Still, these calamities can be tragically instructional. Hypocrisies arise. Pretexts vanish. Fundamental but forgotten truths, easily masked in times of calm, reemerge. From Thucydides’ warnings, we can glean that even suburban elites in Range Rovers can in a day be reduced to tugging over toilet paper rolls at Whole Foods.

During the twenty-seven-year-long Peloponnesian War, Athens, the most liberal and confident of some 1,500 Greek city-states, proved the readiest to butcher prisoners and civilians. And it did so en masse at Mytilene, Scione, and Melos. Thucydides noted that during the plague of 430–29, the most virtuous of Athenians (“especially the case with such as made any pretensions to goodness”) perished along with the selfish. Indeed, their courage in abandoning social distancing to aid the infectious sealed their doom (“honor made them unsparing of themselves in their attendance in their friends’ houses”).

Throughout the savage revolution on the island of Corcyra (Corfu), honesty of language and moderation in politics were among the first casualties. And once the violence and body count mounted, extremism in thought and action followed: ...

[Sir Napsalot]

(This is a featured May article)

This is an article from VDH, you know he has done meticulous research and categorized detailed facts, therefore, I didn't excerpt only the first few paragraphs. You want to and should read it all.

[a little elbow grease]

"The pernicious coronavirus tore off an American scab and revealed suppurating wounds beneath.

Take the central actor of this plague, China. For much of the twenty-first century, the American establishment’s foreign policy toward China, to the degree it was even formalized, was ethically and logically bankrupt.

Yet the status quo remained unquestioned, given it rested on a rare alignment of both progressive and commercial self-interests."

__________

VDH once again offers some excellent perspective ......

[a little elbow grease]

"Barack Obama’s acting White House communications director, Anita Dunn, in 2009 still swooned that Mao was one of her two favorite political “philosophers”"

____________

The Obama crowd (including the putrid Anita Dunn) ......... are ignorant, America-hating slime.

..... pure evil

[hal ogen]

Smug, evil, leftist, anti-Free-America, anti-Free-American loser. This hobo should be in prison for her many crimes against humanity. What a pathetic wretch.

[allendale]

The Peloponnesian Wars and the depravities that followed was the blow that weakened and led to the passing of Greek civilization. The Athenians or the Greeks never had real power in the Western after the Athenian debacle at Syracuse, Sicily. Rome and Carthage emerged as the new powers. Athens was formally conquered by Rome. Yet what remained most importantly in Greece was their love and devotion of philosophy. Rome conquered physically but was itself changed forever by the influence of Greek learning which the Romans avidly embraced. From this mix evolved the core of Western Civilization which was again altered by Christianity.

Hanson as usual is observant and prescient. History repeats because human nature and behavior does not change. How much different are the plotting, power hungry, despotic politicians of today who implement draconian policies, than the Greek politicians and commander elites that instituted and carried out the atrocities? Are the masses behaving any differently? It is devoutly hoped that the American Republic and civilization can withstand this challenge. However if somehow the vile socialist/globalists Demcrats and the demented, creepy Joe Biden are elected in November, it is not likely that it will survive.Ben Franklin’s fears will have become manifest.

[SharpRightTurn]

I read the article in its entirety.

It is excellent.

[livius]

This is a lengthy but brilliant article by VDH and worth reading every word. He lays out exactly what happened and how it happened, tying it with classical examples.

An amazing article and probably the best I have read.

[Nothingburger]

VDH’s “A War Like No Other” is a superb introduction to Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. I’ve read it three times and will probably go for another round later this year.

[Pollster1]

I also read the article in its entirety. It could have been two or three excellent articles - perhaps a “Part 1”, “Part 2” and maybe “Part 3”. I suspect few readers will finish it, just because it is so much longer than his usual work.

[SharpRightTurn]

“I also read the article in its entirety. It could have been two or three excellent articles - perhaps a “Part 1”, “Part 2” and maybe “Part 3”. I suspect few readers will finish it, just because it is so much longer than his usual work.”

You’re right. In fact, I almost stopped a couple of times due to its length. I’m glad I didn’t stop but agree that a number of people probably did not make it to the end.