I need to offer something else. Anyone who read The Transparent Society knows that Pericles i one of my heroes, just behind Franklin& Marshall.
Here are the first seven principles from Pericles' "Funeral Oration" in which he lauds the following characteristics of the Athenian polis:
1. "Our belief in the courage and manliness of so many should not be hazarded on the goodness or badness of one man's speech."
2. "We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about."
3. "Šwhat counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses."
4. "Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people."
5. "No oneŠ is kept in political obscurity because of poverty."
6. "Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as wellŠ."
7. "[Athenians believe that] the worst thing is to rush into action before the consequences have been properly debated."
I cannot think of even one of the principles which is promoted or adhered to by the narrow, elite cult that has cut itself off from negotiation with the whole of our Polis. In which "one man's speech" is all that's needed for a Great Leader to bull ahead, never seeking consensus with the contemptible masses. In which insatiable grabbing of wealth from the public has become high art, without even the promised "investment" as compensation. in which being a member of elite classes matters above all else.
And in which deliberation is abhorred, rushing into spending $150 billion and 1000+ lives on what might have been accomplished for a billion and no americans lost.
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