So the quote at my blog which reads "'The strong do as they can, while the weak suffers as they must' - Thucydides" is, you admit, technically accurate.
But you have a problem because I also do not go into an elaboration of the context of the quote, how Thucydides meant it in the context of the Peloponnesian Wars, and the Melian Dialogues, etc.
Wow.
Well, sorry, Carrol, I'm not gonna rewrite the quote to go into that. The rotating quote widget at my Wordpress blog is generally for short and sweet stuff. It'll stay as is, thank you very much.
Chomsky called it a "maxim of Thucydides" not just on the web, but in the book Chavez waved at the UN, too -- it's not just "on the web stripped of context" or something. It relays a valid observation even without the stuff about the ancient wars, etc., you'd rather it had padded onto it.
-B.
Carrol Cox wrote:
"Read the second of your quotations (emphasis added): "Chomsky: The answer was given a long time ago by Thucydides (******the Melian dialogue*****, in The Peloponnesian War, Book 5)"