Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
I have been reading Xenophon’s Retreat and was struck by the similarities of social, political and cultural experiences during the waning years of the Greek experiment in the late 5th century B.C. and America today. One passage- attributed to Xenophon or Aristotle depending on text reads thus:
“The contrast between aristocracy and democracy is universal. It is based on the fact that intemperance and injustice are more or less unknown in the best of men, who have the highest degree of concern for decency, whereas ignorance and unruliness and dishonesty are in the highest degree qualities of the masses, who are tempted to immoral conduct by their poverty.”
Continue reading “The Constitution of Athens”
