Egypt Today Yet Ancient History

So the Egyptian army has removed the democratically elected President because he became unpopular. What do you think of this? I think people are getting confused by the fact that the army also removed the previous president, but I doubt Mubarack was democratically elected. Mr Mursi was elected but seemed to make himself very unpopular very quickly. An academic I know, pointed out that our 20^th Century democratic institutes no longer seem fit for purpose. Social media and the internet seem to have made us far less patient. We demand instant results in our personal lives: Facebook, Twitter and all those dating apps on our smart phones. So now people expect that political change needs to keep up. Not a bad idea, but not sure this will work. I suppose that is what a Revolution is; action that overthrows the existing order, even if in this case the existing order was a year old.

 In the Ancient World, Athenian Democracy for while it lasted was pretty direct. Citizens could all speak and vote. Yes, I know the criticism about no votes for woman, slaves or foreigners. If politicians became too powerful, or too unpopular they could be ostracised for ten years. Basically people voted by scratching the name of the person they wanted to get rid of on a piece of pottery. The person with the most votes had to leave the city for ten years.

In Roman Republic office bearers were elected for one year and supposed to lay down their office after that. Well unsurprisingly many did not want to give up their power and the legal indemnity that political office brought with it. This reminds me of a current Italian politician and media mogul. Any ideas? Julius Caesar marched on Rome, using is troops to achieve what he was not to achieve without them.

Under the Roman Empire the troops (read army) often decided who became Emperor, usually the guy with the deepest pockets. But not always. Besides nobody really thinks of Rome as democratic, although men did get to vote. Lots of vote rigging of course, by the ruling classes. Under the Roman Empire the people got their bread and circuses to make them forget they had no political power. Today we have no bread but we have Soccer/Football. Then people still ask why we study the Ancient World and what is it good for, we should all be Engineers or IT-Specialists. SIMPLE understanding Human Nature. Humanity has not changed that much in a few thousand years,certainly not our base nature.

Now that I am on to my favourite hobby horse (Trojan?) of the Ancient World, I am looking forward the second part of Dr Micheal Scott’s “Who were the Greeks” on BBC Two tonight. The first episode was kindly loaded on Youtube. I hope that the same person uploads Part Two. In Germany I do not have direct access to the BBC. I really enjoy watching Dr Scott, he is one of my favourite academics. Especially now that he has got rid of the irritating scarf he had a few years ago. If you want to know what the Greeks were getting up to, try and watch the show.