100%. Upper crust has no stake in the struggles of the nation anymore. The people I felt the worst for in the Late Republic were Cato & Cicero. Both loved the Republic deeply and tried their best to preserve it. All for nothing.
100%. Upper crust has no stake in the struggles of the nation anymore. The people I felt the worst for in the Late Republic were Cato & Cicero. Both loved the Republic deeply and tried their best to preserve it. All for nothing.
Two very different Romans, the new man and the oldest of the old. Both washed away by history.
In none of the history I've read do I find encouragement that republics endure for long. Caste systems endure, empires do fall but if they do not perish with civilization itself, merely engender successor empires.
Republics don't last because for a republic to prosper the parties contenting for pre-eminence need to want to govern, not rule. When they give up on the idea that governance is desirable, or conclude that it is no longer possible, they turn to the only alternative, which is striving to rule, for at that point it is rule or be ruled.
Time and history just ran out for Rome. And for Florence. And Venice. And now America.
100%. Upper crust has no stake in the struggles of the nation anymore. The people I felt the worst for in the Late Republic were Cato & Cicero. Both loved the Republic deeply and tried their best to preserve it. All for nothing.
Two very different Romans, the new man and the oldest of the old. Both washed away by history.
In none of the history I've read do I find encouragement that republics endure for long. Caste systems endure, empires do fall but if they do not perish with civilization itself, merely engender successor empires.
Republics don't last because for a republic to prosper the parties contenting for pre-eminence need to want to govern, not rule. When they give up on the idea that governance is desirable, or conclude that it is no longer possible, they turn to the only alternative, which is striving to rule, for at that point it is rule or be ruled.
Time and history just ran out for Rome. And for Florence. And Venice. And now America.