So, is it 1919 or 1938? Which lessons from history should the European Union be keeping in mind in its negotiations with the UK, the dangers of imposing a humiliating settlement on a defeated enemy which leads to the rise of resentment, dangerous populism and violence, or the dangers of abandoning one’s ideals and giving in to aggressive and unjustifiable demands in the hope of keeping the peace, which fuels ever greater demands and does nothing to stop the rise of resentment, populism and violence? Or maybe it’s all about the Holy Roman Empire instead. Thank you, Timothy Garton Ash, your valiant efforts in trying to drum up support for the Chequers compromise when everybody else hates it will not be forgotten. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Corcyra’
Games About Frontiers
Posted in Musings, Research in Progress, tagged Brexit, Corcyra, historical analogies, Melian Dialogue, Thucydides on July 27, 2018| 2 Comments »
Party Over Principle
Posted in Musings, tagged Brexit, Corcyra, factionalism, stasis, Thucydides on December 14, 2017| 4 Comments »
Listen, I don’t spend my time concocting spurious parallels between ancient history and contemporary events so that I can indoctrinate my students and subvert society under the guise of teaching. I open up my copy of Thucydides to prepare for this week’s seminar, the topic of which was set three months ago, and there parallels are…
Irregular Verbs
Posted in Musings, tagged Corcyra, immigration, politics, rhetoric, Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson on November 8, 2017| 4 Comments »
We appear to have reached a tipping point, where future historians of this period – not necessarily human – will simply refuse to believe what they find in their sources on the grounds of plausibility. Just as with the Julio-Claudians, we can discuss the discourse of polemic and invective, and the values and cultural assumptions it reveals, but not the historical reality that lies somewhere behind it; we cannot study Boris Johnson as a real historical individual, but only the image of him as cartoonish buffoon constructed by hostile sources… (more…)
The Centre Cannot Hold?
Posted in Musings, tagged Corcyra, factionalism, rhetoric, Thucydides on August 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »
That radical “a plague on all your houses” centrist Thucydides is muttering “I told you so” to himself again…
Factionalism and polarisation became facts of political life, and places that were affected later rather than sooner, hearing what was happening elsewhere, went to ever greater extremes in identifying new grievances and new accusations against their opponents. The usual valuation of words and actions was changed. What was once seen as reckless aggression now appeared as the loyalty one owed to fellow campaigners, while forethought and hesitation became cowardly equivocation; calls for moderation meant you lacked decency, while seeing different sides of the question was a sign of secret sympathies with the enemy. (3.82.3-4)
Thucydides’ Corruption/ And Technological Disruption
Posted in Musings, tagged Corcyra, poetry, Thucydides on August 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
It’s ages since there’s been an episode of Poetry Corner here – mainly because, oddly enough, Thucydides doesn’t inspire an enormous amount of poetry. But there is not none, and every so often a new poet draws on the same powerful images of conflict and the crisis of civilisation that inspired W.H. Auden in 1 September 1939. Thucydides is, as ever, the dark prophet who anticipated our fate, not least in his terrifying account of civil war and social breakdown in Corcyra.
A storm had brewed over Corfu Isle
Thunder roared with the sounds of revolt
Moods had fashioned this weather a while,
All that was needed was a bit of a jolt.
The Rhetoric of Factionalism
Posted in Musings, tagged Corcyra, Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland, Peter Jones, stasis, Thucydides on March 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »
To echo the immortal BtVS: Peter Jones has written another column in the Spectator. There are words on the page referencing Thucydides. This is never good. (more…)
The Death of Meaning
Posted in Musings, tagged Brexit, Corcyra, Donald Trump, politics, populism, rhetoric, Thucydides on November 4, 2016| 2 Comments »
Words had to change their meanings in response to events. Mindless aggression became courage. Forethought and hesitation became cowardice. Moderation was unmanliness. Seeing different sides of the question was a sign of an ivory-tower academic ‘expert’. Real men said what they thought, the more extreme the better, and anyone who objected was not to be trusted. If an opponent said something reasonable, this had to be condemned as criminal nonsense. Cheating the system was a sign of cleverness, while honesty and integrity were condemned as simple-mindedness. Law and morality were an unacceptable restraint on the Will of The People.
(Thucydides 3.82.4-5, adapted)
