Ancient & modern
FIRST Blair, now Kinnock (last week's Spectator), both whingeing away about the electorate and the newspapers. Why cannot people 'move on' and listen to reason, they whine, in our brave new world? There was a time when people did and there was a good reason for it; but it was in classical Athens of the 5th century BC, when the world's first and last real democracy — where the people took all the decisions and instructed their 'politicians' to carry them out — showed quite extraordinary powers of rational decision-making.
Two examples. In 483 BC the Atheni- ans were proposing to distribute among themselves the surpluses from their sil- ver mines at Laurium on the southern tip of Attica (the people of the fabu- lously gold-rich island of Siphnos did this every year). But Themistocles per- suaded the Assembly, the decision- making body of the people, to forgo short-term gain for long-term advan- tage and use the money to construct a fleet of 200 ships. The Assembly was persuaded — and that was the begin- ning of Athens' dominance of the Greek world and greater prosperity than they could ever have imagined.
In 431 Be war broke out between Athens and Sparta — Athens' invinci- ble navy versus Sparta's terrifying land army. The problem for Athens was how could it defend its rural population, scattered across Attica, against Spartan invasion by land? The Athenian leader Pericles realised it couldn't. Conclu- sion? Attica must be abandoned. But where would the rural population go? They would crowd into Athens, which was protected from attack by its famous Long Walls that also enclosed its harbour-complex at Piraeus. Again, the Assembly was persuaded by the argument, and the historian Thucy- dides paints a moving picture of the farmers abandoning their ancestral homes, 'preparing to change their whole way of life'. The farmers round- ed on Pericles as they saw the Spartans ravaging their land, but there was no other option.
Pericles was not a tyrant. The only power he had was that of his tongue. The point is that the people had to make the decision. They had the responsibility. In our present political system, we have none. The government does it all. Until this situation changes, we shall continue to say cyah-boo sucks' to them and they to whinge on about us. If the government wants the situa- tion to change, let them ponder ancient Athens. Peter Jones
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