"This method tyrants
use of stultifying their subjects cannot be more clearly observed than in what
Cyrus did with the Lydians after he had taken Sardis, their chief city, and had
at his mercy the captured Croesus, their fabulously rich king.
When news was brought
to him that the people of Sardis had rebelled, it would have been easy for him
to reduce them by force; but being unwilling either to sack such a fine city or
to maintain an army there to police it, he thought of an unusual expedient for
reducing it.
He established in it
brothels, taverns, and public games, and issued the proclamation that the
inhabitants were to enjoy them. He found this type of garrison so effective
that he never again had to draw the sword against the Lydians. These wretched
people enjoyed themselves inventing all kinds of games, so that the Latins have
derived the word from them, and what we call pastimes they call ludi, as if
they meant to say Lydi.
Not all tyrants have
manifested so clearly their intention to effeminize their victims; but in fact,
what the aforementioned despot publicly proclaimed and put into effect, most of
the others have pursued secretly as an end.
It is indeed the
nature of the populace, whose density is always greater in the cities, to be
suspicious toward one who has their welfare at heart, and gullible toward one
who fools them. Do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by
decoy, nor any fish sooner fixed on the hook by wormy bait, than are all these
poor fools neatly tricked into servitude by the slightest feather passed, so to
speak, before their mouths.
Truly it is a
marvellous thing that they let themselves be caught so quickly at the slightest
tickling of their fancy. Plays, farces, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts,
medals, pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient peoples the
bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny.
By these practices and
enticements, the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under
the yoke, that the stupefied peoples, fascinated by the pastimes and vain
pleasures flashed before their eyes, learned subservience as naively, but not
so creditably, as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture
books. Roman tyrants invented a further refinement. They often provided the
city wards with feasts to cajole the rabble, always more readily tempted by the
pleasure of eating than by anything else.
The most intelligent
and understanding amongst them would not have quit his soup bowl to recover the
liberty of the Republic of Plato. Tyrants would distribute largess, a bushel of
wheat, a gallon of wine, and a sesterce: 31 and then everybody would
shamelessly cry, “Long live the King !” The fools did not realize that they
were merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that their ruler
could not have given them what they were receiving without having first taken
it from them.
A man might one day be
presented with a sesterce and gorge himself at the public feast, lauding
Tiberius and Nero for handsome liberality, who on the morrow, would be forced
to abandon his property to their avarice, his children to their lust, his very
blood to the cruelty of these magnificent emperors, without offering any more
resistance than a stone or a tree stump. The mob has always behaved in this way
— eagerly open to bribes that cannot be honourably accepted, and dissolutely
callous to degradation and insult that cannot be honourably endured.
Nowadays I do not meet
anyone who, on hearing mention of Nero, does not shudder at the very name of
that hideous monster, that disgusting and vile pestilence. Yet when he died —
when this incendiary, this executioner, this savage beast, died as vilely as he
had lived — the noble Roman people, mindful of his games and his festivals,
were saddened to the point of wearing mourning for him.
Thus wrote Cornelius
Tacitus, a competent and serious author, and one of the most reliable. This
will not be considered peculiar in view of what this same people had previously
done at the death of Julius Caesar, who had swept away their laws and their
liberty, in whose character, it seems to me, there was nothing worthwhile, for
his very liberality, which is so highly praised, was more baneful than the
crudest tyrant who ever existed, because it was actually this poisonous
amiability of his that sweetened servitude for the Roman people.
After his death, that
people, still preserving on their palates the flavour of his banquets and in
their minds the memory of his prodigality, vied with one another to pay him
homage. They piled up the seats of the Forum for the great fire that reduced
his body to ashes, and later raised a column to him as to “The Father of His
People.” (Such was the inscription on the capital.) They did him more honour,
dead as he was, than they had any right to confer upon any man in the world,
except perhaps on those who had killed him.
They didn’t even
neglect, these Roman emperors, to assume generally the title of Tribune of the
People, partly because this office was held sacred and inviolable and also
because it had been founded for the defence and protection of the people and
enjoyed the favour of the state.
By this means they
made sure that the populace would trust them completely, as if they merely used
the title and did not abuse it. Today there are some who do not behave very
differently: they never undertake an unjust policy, even one of some
importance, without prefacing it with some pretty speech concerning public
welfare and common good. You well know, O Longa, this formula which they use
quite cleverly in certain places; although for the most part, to be sure, there
cannot be cleverness where there is so much impudence.
The kings of the
Assyrians and even after them those of the Medes showed themselves in public as
seldom as possible in order to set up a doubt in the minds of the rabble as to
whether they were not in some way more than man, and thereby to encourage
people to use their imagination for those things which they cannot judge by
sight. Thus a great many nations who for a long time dwelt under the control of
the Assyrians became accustomed, with all this mystery, to their own
subjection, and submitted the more readily for not knowing what sort of master
they had, or scarcely even if they had one, all of them fearing by report
someone they had never seen.
The earliest kings of
Egypt rarely showed themselves without carrying a cat, or sometimes a branch,
or appearing with fire on their heads, masking themselves with these objects
and parading like workers of magic. By doing this they inspired their subjects
with reverence and admiration, whereas with people neither too stupid nor too
slavish they would merely have aroused, it seems to me, amusement and laughter.
It is pitiful to review the list of devices that early despots used to
establish their tyranny; to discover how many little tricks they employed,
always finding the populace conveniently gullible, readily caught in the net as
soon as it was spread. Indeed, they always fooled their victims so easily that
while mocking them they enslaved them the more.
What comment can I
make concerning another fine counterfeit that ancient peoples accepted as true
money ?
They believed firmly that the great toe of
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, performed miracles and cured diseases of the spleen;
they even enhanced the tale further with the legend that this toe, after the
corpse had been burned, was found among the ashes, untouched by the fire. In
this wise a foolish people itself invents lies and then believes them. Many men
have recounted such things, but in such a way that it is easy to see that the
parts were pieced together from idle gossip of the city and silly reports from
the rabble.
When Vespasian,
returning from Assyria, passes through Alexandria on his way to Rome to take
possession of the empire, he performs wonders: he makes the crippled straight,
restores sight to the blind, and does many other fine things, concerning which
the credulous and undiscriminating were, in my opinion, more blind than those
cured.
Tyrants themselves
have wondered that men could endure the persecution of a single man; they have
insisted on using religion for their own protection and, where possible, have
borrowed a stray bit of divinity to bolster up their evil ways."
(…)
"Our own leaders have
employed in France certain similar devices, such as toads, ‘fleurs-de-lys’,
sacred vessels, and standards with flames of gold. However, that may be, I do
not wish, for my part, to be incredulous, since neither we nor our ancestors
have had any occasion up to now for scepticism.
Our kings have always
been so generous in times of peace and so valiant in time of war, that from
birth they seem not to have been created by nature like many others, but even
before birth to have been designated by Almighty God for the government and
preservation of this kingdom. Even if this were not so, yet should I not enter
the tilting ground to call in question the truth of our traditions, or to
examine them so strictly as to take away their fine conceits.
Here is such a field
for our French poetry, now not merely honoured but, it seems to me, reborn
through our Ronsard, our ‘Baïf’, our Bellay. These poets are defending our
language so well that I dare to believe that very soon neither the Greeks nor
the Latins will in this respect have any advantage over us except possibly that
of seniority. And I should assuredly do wrong to our poesy — I like to use that
word despite the fact that several have rimed mechanically, for I still discern
a number of men today capable of ennobling poetry and restoring it to its first
lustre — but, as I say, I should do the Muse great injury if I deprived her now
of those fine tales about King Clovis, amongst which it seems to me I can
already see how agreeably and how happily the inspiration of our Ronsard in his
Franciade will play. I appreciate his loftiness, I am aware of his keen spirit,
and I know the charm of the man: he will appropriate the ‘oriflamme’ to his use
much as did the Romans their sacred bucklers and the shields cast from heaven
to earth, according to Virgil. He will use our phial of holy oil much as the
Athenians used the basket of Ericthonius; he will win applause for our deeds of
valour as they did for their olive wreath which they insist can still be found
in Minerva’s tower. Certainly I should be presumptuous if I tried to cast slurs
on our records and thus invade the realm of our poets.
But to return to our
subject, the thread of which I have unwittingly lost in this discussion: it has
always happened that tyrants, in order to strengthen their power, have made
every effort to train their people not only in obedience and servility toward themselves,
but also in adoration. Therefore, all that I have said up to the present
concerning the means by which a more willing submission has been obtained
applies to dictators in their relationship with the inferior and common
classes.
I come now to a point
which is, in my opinion, the mainspring and the secret of domination, the
support and foundation of tyranny. Whoever thinks that halberds, sentries, the
placing of the watch, serve to protect and shield tyrants is, in my judgment,
completely mistaken.
These are used, it
seems to me, more for ceremony and a show of force than for any reliance placed
in them. The archers forbid the entrance to the palace to the poorly dressed
who have no weapons, not to the well-armed who can carry out some plot.
Certainly it is easy
to say of the Roman emperors that fewer escaped from danger by the aid of their
guards than were killed by their own archers. It is not the troops on
horseback, it is not the companies afoot, it is not arms that defend the
tyrant. This does not seem credible on first thought, but it is nevertheless
true that there are only four or five who maintain the dictator, four or five
who keep the country in bondage to him.
Five or six have
always had access to his ear, and have either gone to him of their own accord,
or else have been summoned by him, to be accomplices in his cruelties,
companions in his pleasures, panders to his lusts, and sharers in his plunders.
These six manage their
chief so successfully that he comes to be held accountable not only for his own
misdeeds but even for theirs. The six have six hundred who profit under them,
and with the six hundred they do what they have accomplished with their tyrant.
The six hundred
maintain under them six thousand, whom they promote in rank, upon whom they
confer the government of provinces or the direction of finances, in order that
they may serve as instruments of avarice and cruelty, executing orders at the
proper time and working such havoc all around that they could not last except
under the shadow of the six hundred, nor be exempt from law and punishment
except through their influence.
The consequence of all
this is fatal indeed. And whoever is pleased to unwind the skein will observe
that not the six thousand but a hundred thousand, and even millions, cling to
the tyrant by this cord to which they are tied. According to Homer, Jupiter
boasts of being able to draw to himself all the gods when he pulls a chain.
Such a scheme caused the increase in the senate under Julius, the formation of
new ranks, the creation of offices; not really, if properly considered, to
reform justice, but to provide new supporters of despotism. In short, when the
point is reached, through big favours or little ones, that large profits or
small are obtained under a tyrant, there are found almost as many people to
whom tyranny seems advantageous as those to whom liberty would seem desirable.
Doctors declare that if, when some part of the body has gangrene a disturbance
arises in another spot, it immediately flows to the troubled part.
Even so, whenever a
ruler makes himself a dictator, all the wicked dregs of the nation — I do not
mean the pack of petty thieves and earless ruffians who, in a republic, are
unimportant in evil or good — but all those who are corrupted by burning
ambition or extraordinary avarice, these gather round him and support him in
order to have a share in the booty and to constitute themselves petty chiefs
under the big tyrant.
This is the practice among notorious robbers
and famous pirates: some scour the country, others pursue voyagers; some lie in
ambush, others keep a lookout; some commit murder, others robbery; and although
there are among them differences in rank, some being only underlings while
others are chieftains of gangs, yet is there not a single one among them who
does not feel himself to be a sharer, if not of the main booty, at least in the
pursuit of it.
It is dependably
related that Sicilian pirates gathered in such great numbers that it became
necessary to send against them Pompey the Great, and that they drew into their
alliance fine towns and great cities in whose harbours they took refuge on
returning from their expeditions, paying handsomely for the haven given their
stolen goods"
Dependency on the State is the Core of the Takeover Plot of Humanity
N.B. Did u notice how the PTB’s justify themselves because of the future ? As if they own it. (Like religions)
Fuck the future !! Tackle the present !
The '2023' 9/11:
Maui is a combination of EMF (or satellite microwave) and CGI. (I'm not ok with Mr Mathis who is dismissing EMF. We've had HAARP for a long time don't we ?)
All that is to say: "Hey there, do not trespass, the control is ours, life and death !".
'Children Were
Incinerated to Ash': Livid Hawaiians Slam Biden for Cracking Jokes, Lying about
Wife
Horror: Those Who
Disobeyed Barricades Survived Maui Fires
Watch: Maui Residents
Turned Back by Police Barricades Recount their Brush with Death
On The Brink of a
Dramatic Change: The Digitalization of Money
"(...) In my recent interview
with the media and finance expert, and one of the most famous Bitcoiners, Max
Keiser, he compared the CBDC to a parasitic and centralized cancer: "If
you were to look at the amount of energy that Bitcoin uses and the rate at which
it's increasing, you would say good is triumphing over evil. So this gives me a
lot of hope. And I don't think centralization in anything works at all, except
cancer. Cancer is the only thing that seems to work to be overly centralized
and parasitic. That's the cancer model, but I think we're gonna win against the
cancer of CBDCs."
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