Tag: Polybius

Some Comfort from History

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

The invention of Catherine the Great - Engelsberg ideas

Catherine the Great

It’s said that Catherine the Great, ruler of Russia in the 18th Century (and friend of Benjamin Franklin), used to ease her mind by reading history. I’ve been trying to do that this weekend, reading Polybius’ history of Rome.

As troublous as our own times are, it’s nothing compared to what people had to go through in the Fourth and Third centuries B.C. The Romans especially faced incessant war, climaxing with Hannibal’s invasion of Italy. Rome vs. Carthage, Rome vs. the Gauls, Rome vs. Macedon–if they’d had the kind of weapons and military technology we have today, they’d have depopulated all of Europe.

And so we must agree with Empress Catherine: those ancient times were worse. And God has kept them far from us… at least since the end of World War II. That’s probably the only period that can compare with those days.

Without His protection, we would not be here.

Please, Lord, protect us still! Wickedness runs wild in our fallen world today. We have wars which could very easily get out of hand.

Protect us by thy might, Great God our king.

Polybius, You Knew! You Really Knew

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Polybius | Biography, Books, & Facts | Britannica

Man, some of those ancient historians, they knew! They’d have figured out our time in a matter of minutes.

Polybius, who died in 118 B.C., lived as a hostage in Rome and deeply studied Roman life and politics. Two things he wrote jumped out at me today.

First, he admired Rome’s government, which he saw as a system of checks and balances that prevented any single branch of government from dominating the others. Our own country’s founders, who had read Polybius and others, adopted this model for our Constitution. Idiots and villains have been trying to topple it ever since.

Second, his study of history convinced him that tyranny most often arises in response to chaos and instability: when the desperate populace turns to a strong man to pull them out of the ditch. But eventually, he said, government sinks back into chaos, a new tyrant emerges from the melee, and the whole damned cycle repeats itself. He thought the Romans had found a solution; but if he’d lived some seventy years longer, he would have seen they hadn’t.

Polybius has no comfort to offer us. Thanks be to God, we have the Bible, God’s word. His laws, His precepts, will protect whoever embraces them. We are only forced to live in that hopeless political cycle if we rely on man’s word–and the false wisdom of a fallen world. Polybius did the best he could, but he lived in the wrong time and the wrong place.

But he would have felt at home at our Constitutional Convention. He didn’t have the Bible; America’s founders did. I think he would have rejoiced in it.

Let’s not lose it.

‘Politics Without God’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Polybius Stock Photos & Polybius Stock Images - Alamy

Polybius predicted the demise of Rome’s republic.

Something “Unknowable” said the other day got me thinking about this, and I decided it’d be a good time to share an article I wrote about the subject, for Chalcedon, back in 2006–the mindless “political cycle” that fallen humanity gets sucked into when it turns its back on God.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/politics-without-god

Very simply, here’s the cycle.

Chaos and violence > “strong man” > king or president > tyrant > rebels oust tyrant > aristocracy > oligarchy > people oust oligarchs > democracy > mob rule and chaos >>> and the whole thing repeats itself again and again.

Polybius, a Greek general who lived in Rome as a hostage, praised Rome’s republic as the best effort yet to haul a nation out of the endless political cycle; but as he analyzed Rome with a clear and penetrating eye, he would up predicting that the republic would fail. His prediction came true.

Our own country is in danger of this, especially right now. Our only hope is to place ourselves under God’s protection and obey His word.

‘Politics Without God’ (2006)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

Polybius–too much of a gentleman to say “I told you so”

I wrote this essay for Chalcedon in 2006, and 13 years later, it seems more on target than it was when it was new. Maybe Chalcedon is rubbing off on me.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/politics-without-god

Polybius was a Greek who lived in Rome when Rome’s Republic was at the height of its power and prosperity. He studied it shrewdly and intently, praised Rome for its system of checks and balances [which inspired our own country’s system of checks and balances, and divided government]–and accurately predicted its collapse.

As a pagan, for Polybius there was no escape for humanity from the impersonal, unchanging, hopeless “cycle of political revolution.” Rome, he predicted, would be brought down by the intense “craving for office” among her elites, who would do literally anything to obtain it, and the masses “roused to fury” by class warfare rhetoric. He could imagine no way out of it: for him there was no Kingdom of Christ, no sanctification, no redemption.

But if we’re going to behave and think like pagans instead of joint-heirs with Christ, well–take another look at today’s headlines. If Polybius could see them, he’d swear he’d seen it all before.

Hillary: Abolish Electoral College

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of hillary clinton angry

Still in full tantrum mode

The Greek historian Polybius praised the Roman Republic for its system of checks and balances. As a Greek, he had personal experience of “democracy” self-destructing into hysteria and mob rule.

Today presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton, still unable to come to terms with her defeat by Donald Trump and the American people, continues to push for the abolition of one of our country’s firmest and most successful checks and balances–the electoral college (https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/17/hillary-clinton-abolish-electoral-college-because-donald-trump-is-destroying-america/).

Why? Because Donald Trump won, and he’s “a racist.” And he’s destroying an “American democracy” that does not exist and never did: our Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government, not a democracy. Our founders read Polybius.

Of course, it would require a constitutional amendment to replace the electoral college with a straight popular vote. You don’t “just do it.” But I don’t think Democrats know that.

Without the electoral college, every presidential election would be dominated by Far Left crazy states California and New York; and a regular injection of illegal alien votes would ensure a perpetual Democrat presidency. Can’t have any of those voter ID laws, etc. That would be racist.

The electoral college protects America from being hijacked by a handful of states with big populations. It has always protected us from that. “Democracy,” Polybius wrote, never fails to degenerate, first into mob rule, finally into dictatorship. Sort of like what happened in Venezuela.

If you love your country, don’t even think about voting for a Democrat.