Transcript greekhistory01

Ancient Greece
Ancient Philosophy
Sparta
• Helots outnumbered Spartaans10:1
• Messenian Revolt
• Police state
Fascism
• 1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
• 2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights Because of fear of enemies and the need for
security
• 3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a
Unifying Cause
• 4. Supremacy of the Military
• 5. Rampant Sexism the state is represented as
the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
• 6. Controlled Mass Media
• 7. Obsession with National Security - Fear
Fascism
•
•
•
•
•
8. Religion and Government are intertwined
9. Corporate Power is protected
10. Labor Power is suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - the
police are given almost limitless power
• 13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption • 14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes
Athens
• Draco-laws too harsh
Athens
• coined money state backed
• the farmer could pledge his own person or
that of his wife or his children for the
repayment of a loan.
– the greater part of the agricultural population
was in danger of being converted into
bondage.
• class warfare
Solon
• Constitutional reform
• Economic reform
– abrogated at once all agricultural and personal loans.
– liberated all those debtors who were actually in
slavery under previous legal adjudication
– it forbade any Athenian to pledge his own person or
that of any member of his family as security for a loan.
• debased currency to help rich out of crisis so
their debts paid off with money of lesser value
Now
• Debasement of currency
– Nixon-Bretton Woods agreement
• first bankruptcy of the U.S.
• Fiat money system
– Greenspan
•
•
•
•
1987 Crisis
Savings and Loans
Stock market bubbles
Real Estate bubble
Athens
• Pisistratus
– redistribute land
• Cleisthenes
– Athens was divided into ten areas called demes
– Fifty men from each were selected to make
decisions.
– All males over 20 could vote in the assembly.
– Leaders were chosen by lot (names drawn from a
pot).
– People could point out anyone that they thought was
a threat - If 6,000 votes were cast against someone,
they were "ostrakon" (ostracized). Athens was now a
democratic city-state.
Persian Wars
• Persion War 1 - Darius
– Greeks won at Marathon
– Messenger ran 24 miles and dropped dead
• Persion War 2 - Xerxes
– Persians defeated at Thermopylae
– Greeks betrayed by Ephialtes
– Persians burned Athens
– Battle of Salamis.
Terrorism
• Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win, explains the strategic logic of
suicide terrorism.
• Pape has collected a database of every suicide terrorist attack
between 1980 and 2004, all 462 of them.
• Between 1995 and 2004, the al Qaeda years, two-thirds of all
attacks came from countries where the U.S. had troops stationed.
• the strongest motivation is not religion but rather a desire "to compel
modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory
the terrorists view as their homeland."
• Between 1982 and 1986, there were 41 suicide terrorist attacks in
Lebanon. Once the U.S., the French, and Israel withdrew their
forces from Lebanon, there were no more attacks.
• The reason the attacks stop, according to Pape, is that the Osama
bin Ladens of the world no longer can inspire potential suicide
terrorists despite their continued fanatical religious beliefs.
Delian League
• Athens dominated and made others pay
tributes of ships, soldiers, and money, and
they wouldn't let anyone leave.
• The Melian Dialogue
– Might makes right
Athenian Empire
• Rich from tribute
• Golden Age-Pericles
American Empire
• American Empire
– needs fiat money
– Nixon
• First bankruptcy
– Reagan
• Huge military buildup on borrowed money
• Prolonged Cold War
• Latin America
– Bush2
• Iraq War
The Peloponnesian War
• Phase I
– Sparta invade Athens
– Athenians blockaded in city
– Plague
– Stalemate
• Phase II
– Peace of Nicias
• Phase III
– Sicilian Expedition
Sicilian Expedition
•
•
•
•
Alcibiades-for
Nicias-against
Masses were enthusiastic
Army and navy destroyed
Now
• Mass Psychology
– Stock market bubbles-Irrational exuberance
– War hysteria
Alexandrian
• King Philip of Macedonia
• Alexander the Great