PERICLES ON DOMOCRACY--430 B.C.

I have been reading lately again in the Greek classics and history. Here are some excerpts from Pericles' famous funeral oration given in Athens in the Autumn of 430 B.C. These remarks have been foundational for Western Civilization and especially for American Democracy. Unfortunately, these two vital subjects are no longer taught in many of our our high schools and colleges.

Pericles says: "Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership in a particular class, but of the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in obscurity because of poverty." (How things have changed in our multi-million dollar elections!)

Pericles continues: "We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in all public affairs we keep the law. This is because it commands deep respect." (Things have changed in contemporary America.)

"...in our own homes we find a beauty and good taste which delight us every day and which drive away our cares....It seems just as natural to enjoy foreign goods as our own local products."

Pericles adds: "Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking measures to escape from it. Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well."

Athens practiced democracy more or less for two centuries with intermittent wars. America has more or less practiced democracy for a little over two centuries. However, I believe our foundational principles are seriously threatened from within. The late British historian, Arnold Toynbee wrote: "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." Is Patrick Buchanan correct that we are experiencing the death of a superpower?