To: Hawkmoon who wrote (9188 ) 1/6/2001 6:38:22 AM From: GUSTAVE JAEGER Read Replies (1) | Respond to Re: The premise for my concerns is that it is normally very difficult for a democracy to go to way against another democracy. There must be extraordinary circumstances that will generate popular opinion behind such an action. And true democracies will reflect pressure to end a "bad war" that is not in the nation's interests. Athens and Sparta made war on each other not because they were different [regimes] but, precisely, because they were alike.... 1984 (Orwell, revisited):The economic war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous economic wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of financial resources, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs.In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The economic war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the economic war is not to make or prevent conquests of markets, but to keep the structure of society intact. [...] Message 12959003 THE EVIL EMPIREBy Josiah Ober thehistorynet.com Krypteia --"The Secret Matter." Although, like so much in Sparta, the Krypteia was deliberately shrouded in mystery and misinformation, it appears that before being inducted into a mess unit, the would-be Similar was required to serve as a member of a highly secretive team of state-sponsored assassins. The youthful members of the Krypteia snuck about Spartan territory, especially at night, and assassinated those Helots thought to be outstanding in any way--it could be fatally dangerous for a Helot to be regarded as handsome, intelligent, or ambitious. How many Helots actually died under the knives or garrotes of the members of the Krypteia each year is unknown, but there is little doubt that the Spartans intended the Helot's life to be spent in permanent insecurity and sheer terror--never knowing when the blow would fall, or why. Krypteia was not regarded as enough. Thucydides notes that Spartans had once become "so afraid of [the Helots'] unyielding character and their numbers" that they devised the following plan: they proclaimed that the Helots themselves should make a list of those Helots who had done the finest service for Sparta during military operations, implying that these men would be rewarded with their freedom. Thucydides continues: "This was, however, a test conducted in the belief that the ones who showed most spirit and came forward first to claim their freedom would be the very ones most likely to rise up against Sparta." Some 2,000 men were duly selected; they put on festive garlands and made thanks offerings to the gods. "Soon, however, the Spartans did away with them, and no one ever knew exactly how each one of them was killed."
