This morning I nearly got run over by a police motor cyclist who was racing down the wrong side of the street to stop the traffic so some high-up’s car could be given precedence.
I had just been reading about a dire, slapdash “modern” production of Handel’s Messiah.
These two events started me thinking about the collapse of the Roman Empire – which few nowadays know about as history has been banned from most schools.
What were the symptoms?
Corrupt, incompetent leaders, divorced from and having lost the respect of the people.
A loss of belief in the values of the civilisation.
Infiltration, sometimes invited, sometimes not, by alien hordes who had great self-belief.
A decline in learning.
Shoddy craftsmanship – evident in architecture and the arts.
A vast and growing population of idlers, subsidised by ever growing taxes on those who worked, and kept entertained by vicious spectacles.
A debauched currency.
The worship of singers, charioteers, gladiators and similar figures.
Recognise anything familiar?
Oh, and who’s the chap in the hat? The philosopher, George Santayana, who said “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I often quote him.
Steady on Old Lad.
You are accident prone. I well remember rescuing you – heroically – from a car that had overturned in a ditch on a coastal road west of Dieppe.
Mixed reception. “Why didn't you leave the bugger there” was not an isolated reaction.
But, no. I had a prescient thought of an Academy yet to be born. Guinea Pigs yet to be enslaved.
This Christmas you should indeed pay heed to old Santa Yana 🙂
Prime Minister’s Question Time gave us another insight into the sheer stupidity of the steaming turd, the Prime Minister, and the leader of the opposition, that florid faced flabby arsed ex-public schoolboy Cameroon.
The turd looked quite perky today, daring to poke his face above the parapet for the first time in ages.
Having had his fag Gideon Osborne warm his lav seat for him, Cameroon lunged into the attack asking why Britain was now clearly the last country in the G20 still in recession.
Up bobbed the turd. “No it’s not” said the PM, “Spain is still in recession and it’s in the G20.”
Not one of the smirking bum boys on the opposition bench pointed out that Spain is not in the G20. I should mention that Britain is the Chair of the G20.
Who cares about the other 19, they’re all foreigners anyway.
Prime Minister’s Question Time gave us another insight into the sheer stupidity of the steaming turd, the Prime Minister, and the leader of the opposition, that florid faced flabby arsed ex-public schoolboy Cameroon.
The turd looked quite perky today, daring to poke his face above the parapet for the first time in ages.
Having had his fag Gideon Osborne warm his lav seat for him, Cameroon lunged into the attack asking why Britain was now clearly the last country in the G20 still in recession.
Up bobbed the turd. “No it’s not” said the PM, “Spain is still in recession and it’s in the G20.”
Not one of the smirking bum boys on the opposition bench pointed out that Spain is not in the G20. I should mention that Britain is the Chair of the G20.
Who cares about the other 19, they’re all foreigners anyway.