I read Herodotus’s Histories recently and the events he describes from 2500 years ago have uncanny parallels with today’s news. As the summary on the back of my copy (Penguin Classic) says
“Herodotus’s Histories is the first great prose work of European literature. It’s main theme is the heroic and successful struggle of a small and divided Greece against the mighty empire of Persia - with the underlying conflict between the absolutism of the East and the free institutions of the West”
The book records the story of the massive slave army of the Persian King Xerxes heading for Small democratic free Greece (if you ignore the slaves and womens lack of rights) with the sole aim to conquer and bring the Greeks into his empire. Under the leadership of Leonidas, the Greek advance party of a few Spartens heroically halt the Persian advance at Thermopylea, and fight to the death in order to give the Greeks time to prepare the defence of their country, The Greeks eventually win the war by abandoning Athens and fighting a sea battle at a location that gives them the advantage. Defeated Xerxes heads home, defeated but still King of Persia.
I’m sure you can see that if Greece is replaced by Europe, Persians by Russians, Spartans by Ukraine, Leonidas by Zelensky, Xerxes by Putin it’s all too familiar to watchers of today's news programmes.
It would appear that Putin has not read Herodotus, which is a pity. If he had he would know that massive slave armies are not as mobile, skilled or motivated to fight as freemen, who with their voting rights and freedom have much more to lose. They fight to the death to protect their rights. You have to whip the masses to fight for something they don’t believe in and generously reward the elite warriors in order to get them to do the whipping. Free men fight for nothing but an idea. Herodotus learnt this 2500 years ago and recorded it as he thought it was important, Some called him the father of history, others the father of Lies, so you could pick and choose your delusion then, just as we choose between truth and fake news today.
What will happen in our current Greek Tragedy is still to be decided, but if you follow the plot, Ukraine is doomed, but they give Europe time to prepare and eventually push Putin back into Russia. If you continue a few hundred years later Alexander the Great revenges Xerxes and invades Persia, sacks the capital, Persepolis, and continues on the rampage as far as India, making the Greeks just as bad as the invading Persians. So who could the modern Alexander be? Trump with nuclear weapons? Lets hope not.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It seems we have learnt nothing since Herodotus‘s time, and whilst the technology has changed, human nature hasn’t and we may as well be living in the Bronze age. Human Progress is a sham, and we will only start to progress when human nature changes and we all start to use our Brains rather than be ruled by our hormones and selfish genes.
When we start thinking about what we do, how it effects others and the future, and choose to only do things that benefit every one, not just ourselves, when we choose to only do things that make the world a better place, then will we start to make progress.
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I started .this blog a year ago with a “History of the World in a Single object” (please read it) and it now seems I have come full circle. I don‘t think I will write any more, as what else is their to say?
I’ve written to Ambassadors, I’ve had a letter published in the Economist magazine but so far only 53 people have looked at my blog and I bet only a handful have actually read any of the essays. We seem to be fixated on our tiny screens, too busy destroying the planet and ourselves to take time to stop, learn and think, too busy to look and listen to the whole wide world in all its majesty, grandeur and beauty, that is right there before us. We don't deserve it.
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I Thank YOU for reading my thoughts, I have no idea if they are right or wrong, wise or foolish, but I know one thing for certain, they are 100% me, expressed freely and without fear from anyone or anything, for which I’m truly grateful. .
Its up to you and others now. Doing nothing is not an option. For me, the cats need feeding and the toilet is blocked!!!
Make the World a better Place.
My Love to Every one
Trevor Prew.
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