What made Thucydides relevant for Hobbes in the 17th century, what makes him relevant today, is the likelihood that the destabilized Greek world of Athens is a model of future destabilization. Like the Athenians of the fifth century B.C., we stand on the brink of the greatest commotion that ever happened. “To hear this history rehearsed,” Thucydides explained, “shall be perhaps not delightful.” Nonetheless, this history gains its immortality because it instructs future peoples what they might expect from runaway liberty.
There are moments in history when the world descends into madness. Everything is changed forever, and much is lost. In describing his time, Thucydides wrote: “For neither had there ever been so many cities expunged and made desolate … nor so much banishing and slaughter, some by the war and some by sedition….” When society itself is disrupted, even nature appears to rebel. Earthquakes occurred, together with an unusual number of eclipses; and there were horrible outbreaks of plague. “All these evils entered together with this war,” Thucydides stated.
Can wars of this kind happen again? Yes. Such wars will happen, again and again, until history itself comes to an end. At the outset of great troubles we seldom suspect the horrible path we have entered upon. We rarely see the danger, and the abyss opening at our feet.[ ... ]
Athens and America are not the same. But lessons applying to one may apply to the other. Once men break with tradition, venturing upon a colossal political experiment, they lose the ability to navigate. They lose their sense of proportion, their sense of right and wrong. It is always dangerous to mistake where you are, to lack the means for recognizing error, to believe that immediate success – or successes earned to date – indicate some newfound path to collective happiness.
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