the Melian dialogues

[joanna bujes]

At 08:43 AM 04/24/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >>There's a great line in the Melian dialogue that goes (something like):
> >>The powerful do to the weak what they choose to and can and the weak have
> >>no choice but to accept this.
> >
> >OK. But let's remember that this line was spoken by the loser of the
> >Peloponesian war: the "powerful" Athens.
> >
> >Joanna
> >
>
>Your point, J? Who is our Sparta? Last I heard they went down in 1989-91.
>jks

There is always a Sparta. The (dialectical) point being that power sows its 
own destruction: Athens was the most powerful state in the Peloponese, 
which is why it couldn't afford to "lose" and why everyone began to see it 
as a threat.

The U.S.  is in a similar situation now and the more it tries to have its 
own way because it CAN, the more hated and fragile it will become. Remember 
too, ours is a senescent empire.

Joanna