Jan 21, 2021
Safety First!
The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
- Cicero (106–43 BC)
Cliff Jumpers Need Not Comply
Safety First!
Inspired by Cicero (106–43 BC)’s quote, “The safety of the people shall be thehighest law.”. The titled responsion is…
In Safety First! the fifth book in the “Masters of Liberty” series, Cicero’s dialogue on liberty with Brutus is the basis for the opening chapter. Cicero and Brutus had been enemies before the Republic, and the book shows that when faced with difficult questions, both men try to answer their own question first, rather than simply answer the question being posed to them. As you can imagine, this is a great way to approach any discussion, but it is especially true when debating the greatest philosopher of the early Republic.
In this book, Cicero also gives insight into what he meant by virtue, and what he thought the best way to achieve it. The first part of the book is devoted to the most famous argument in all of literature, the Euthanasia Debate, between Cicero and Brutus. This debate is important for many reasons, one of which is that it is the beginning of the Republic, the period after which every person was required to have some form of social welfare program in place to assist them in their daily lives. While this is not the case, the fact that Caesar had instituted a system to ensure that the masses were provided with good food and health care has long since permeated the culture.
In the second part of the book, Cicero gives insight into what the good citizens in Rome actually did. As we all know, there were many activities that the wealthy citizens could do in the city, but they tended to focus their time, effort and resources on politics, art, literature and other forms of entertainment. This lack of focus on the poor was one of the reasons why the Republic fell so quickly. In fact, if the citizens had focused their attention and resources on providing food and health care for the common citizens, perhaps they would have preserved the Republic. It is interesting to note that when Caesar finally declared himself Emperor, it was his first act of compassion for the common people. While he did not provide for their necessities directly, he did provide his own.
Never Eat Shredded Wheat
Inspired by Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)’s quote, “Everything that our present-day psychologist has to tell us — and here we refer not only to the systematic science but also in the wider sense to the physiognomic knowledge of men — relates to the present condition of the Western soul, and not, as hitherto gratuitously assumed, to “the human soul” at large”. The titled responsion is…
The heuristics that we are used to differentiate and distinguish ethnic diversity based on physiognomic characteristics may ignite nationalist tendencies and further distance the ingroup from the outgroup.
