High life
A true democrat
Taki
TAthens his is a city that thrives on rumours. Once upon a time, 2,500 years ago, rumour served to destroy one's political enemies. It still does. King Constantine is a popular target, as are the CIA, Nato and the Unit- ed States. The EU, however, is sacrosanct. Even the modern Greeks are not dumb enough to bite the hand that has made them fat, rich and lazy.
Rumour helped destroy many great Athenians, starting with Pericles, Themis- tocles and Alcibiades. When the latter was about to be murdered in Persia, his wife threw herself between him and his assas- sins. The rumour that swept Athens was that he was masquerading as a woman.
Twenty-seven years ago, my father com- missioned an enormous statue of Pericles by a German sculptor and donated it to the city of Athens. It stands in front of the Academy, although the last time I looked the donor's name was hardly legible. The reason old dad (and yours truly) loved Per-. ides was because he was a true democrat — i.e., in order for a true democracy to qualify as one it needs three all-important qualifications: a set of good institutions; a body of citizens with a sound understand- ing of the principles of democracy; and social beings who have a high quality of leadership at critical moments of their his- tory.
Better yet, back in those good old days, a soi-disant democracy like ours today would be laughed off the Acropolis. The ancients would find incomprehensible calling demo- cratic a government by indirect representa- tion and lacking in formal public account- ability by politicians. The dirty tricks played upon an unsuspecting public by the Heaths, Howes, Hurds and Hezzas would have seen all four made to drink Socrates' least favourite beverage, and then some. (Their wealth would have been expropriated, their children disgraced, and their names would become swear words. You filthy Heath, you.) Mind you, in their infinite wisdom, Athe- nians did not feel 'your pain' a la Clinton, and did not spent their time worrying about racism, sexism and other isms. Women, children, foreigners and slaves were excluded from citizenship, thus mak- ing participation in the democratic process a success for those who qualified. Amen! Amen!
Any male over 18 could vote on every issue and they could stand for executive posts decided by lottery. The main check was the performance of the elected. Even giving bad advice could lead to terrible punishment. (Imagine what would have happened to John Major.) The system last- ed from 508 BC to 322 BC, when a Macedo- nian edict ended it.
Pericles was an annually elected public official — strategos — one of ten, who never placed himself above the law, unlike Clinton, Papandreou, and the majority of the ruffians who lord it over us nowadays. Although Athenian democracy insisted on equality before the law — isonomia — eco- nomic status was not an issue. In fact, eco- nomic status was considered much lower than that of public service. Unlike today, when Hollywood scum is revered by society and politicians, while the military is shunned, in old Athens the soldier got the girl (sometimes even the boy).
Periclean Athens was our finest hour. His building programme can still be seen on the Acropolis (none of that Richard Rogers crap) and in its art democratic Athens is depicted as the champion of moral law and of moderation — sophrosyne. Alas, Pericles died in 429, dur- ing the plague brought on by the Spartans needing Lebensraum. (That's when the rumour mill went to work overtime.) To many, Greece as a nation did not exist in ancient times, but they are wrong. In the post-Homeric era the Greeks came to share a common language, religion and culture. We were a short, fair, curly-haired people of great beauty. The statues and friezes of the period are proof beyond any reasonable doubt that we are the same race today. And to finish with a good joke, there is a clown by the name of Martin Bernal who claims that Greeks were black and that we got our culture from Africa via Egypt. Mayor Giuliani of the Big Bagel insists the Greeks were Puerto Ricans. I say if only the West had the kind of democ- racy my ancestors enjoyed, it would be Utopia all around.
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