One from the vaults . . .

[This was written by me, as will become obvious at the bottom, some three and a half years ago.  I can’t remember what exact circumstances gave rise to it.  In any event, I have decided to use it anyway as filler.]

Many ancient Greeks, including Plato and Aristotle and Thucydides, had great difficulties with the manner of the development of democracy in Athens.  Despite significant changes in the traditional structures of power, it was the attitude of the democrats—or some of them anyway—a perceived attitude of arrogance and insolence—that seems to have rankled most of all.

Nothing surprising here.  Ruling elites have always tended to resent incursions by the lower orders into their traditional areas of power; and this resentment has often focused on incidentals such as the uncouthness and lack of manners etc. of the new arrivals.

At the same time, it is also recognised that sudden rises in status can often cause people to lose the run of themselves.  Indeed, it is arguably an inherent human trait.  Think of certain people who have won the Lotto, for instance.  A succinct and modern take on the political side of the problem is provided in a cameo scene in David Mamet’s 1991 film Homicide.

The old saying about ‘beggars on horseback’ has a special reference here.  Indeed, it is a saying that, in one form or another, might have a provenance going back as far as ancient times, the matter of having or not having a horse being a dividing line between the gentleman and the commoner.  Eli Sagan, the American sociologist, described how any sudden release of social repression was likely to lead to a splurge of pent up frustration on the part of those previously repressed, which might well cause them to ‘ride to the devil’ in celebration of their new found freedoms.

Something like this happened in Italy in the aftermath of the First World War.  Italy had entered the war belatedly, hoping to gain territorial advantage from it; and although they ended up on the side of the victors, the experience of the army was, like a foretaste of its fate-to-be in the next war, one of defeat, frantic retreats and mass desertions.  The traditional right-wing parties and the extreme left-wing parties (including Mussolini) had supported Italy’s entry into the war.  The main opponents had been the Socialist Party.

In the wake of the war the socialists turned on the army, especially on the officer corps.  It was naked class aggression, the officers being mainly representative of the upper classes.  Officers in uniform were attacked, spat upon, had to be rescued from hostile crowds, had their medals torn from their chests etc. etc.  One consequence of it was to drive them to a great extent into the ranks of the fascists—though logically most of them would probably have ended up there anyway.

Yet the reaction of the socialists—or the more vociferous of them anyway—represented less a protest against the war than what might be seen as a premature celebration of victory.  Rather like St Paul in the aftermath of Jesus, the socialists expected with absolute certainty the imminent arrival of the revolution.  Russia had lit the powder keg and it was only a matter of time—and a very short time at that—before it detonated in Italy.  By the election of 1919 the socialists had increased their share of the national vote to 32% and tripled their number of deputies, seeing, in the words of one historian, ‘parliament mainly as a forum for barracking and abuse ahead of the anticipated revolution.’

As it turned out, of course, they were wrong.  They had become victims of their own propaganda.  Rather than the future being red, it was decidedly black.

There is another old saying: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick!’  On the face of it, it is somewhat opaque.  But really the ‘big stick’ means power—and the proof of having power is that you don’t need to advertise the fact.  It is the people who speak loudest who generally have the least power, and are trying to compensate for it by making the most noise.  Not only are they trying to convince the world that they have ‘stick’, they are all the more desperately trying to convince themselves.

This may have a relevance to current events in Ireland.

20 February 2015