When Greeks Bear Gifts: On Economy, Philosophy and Freedom | Dr. Jose Yulo | April 1, 2010 | Ignatius Insight

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2010/jyulo_greeksgifts_apr2010.asp

"To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery; that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed." —Marcus Cato The Elder

"Didst thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil." —Fyodor Dostoevsky


A particularly insightful student once queried after a class had ended: "How did Rome become Italy?"

It was an innocuous enough question, seemingly answerable by tracing the fall of the empire through time to the myriad intrigues of the Renaissance. However, what lay at the core of this student's curiosity was the rather stark departure from the turgidity of Cato, the eloquence of Cicero, and the vision of Augustus, evidenced by the more modern Italian state known primarily for its focus on sybaritic aesthetics.

How did Rome, whose charge as Virgil would remind its citizens, was to rule over the nations with arts such as "crowning peace with law ... and taming, in war the proud" replace the "ave" with the "ciao?"

A similar, though perhaps less lighthearted analogy, can be made of the current state of affairs in 21st century Greece. In keeping with the comparison, how did a small conglomeration of city-states known for warring so fiercely for their independence against foreign invasion and domination morph into a consolidated nation that now is more noteworthy for its civil strife? There has been much analysis of the economic factors leading to Greece's current dilemma.