By Alec Hogg
While writing a context for a Biznews article yesterday, I found myself quoting Cicero, the long dead Roman orator and philosopher whose beliefs live on through the blueprint of democracy, the American Constitution. Indeed, the discovery in 1345 of a collection of letters from Cicero to his friend Atticus sparked a cultural revolution that developed into Europe’s Renaissance – and the modernity we take for granted today.
Over the weekend, the London Sunday Times published a lengthy treatise on Cicero by English author Robert Harris, who has just finished the last in a trilogy of novels on the man. Harris writes that he invested 12 years researching Cicero, a journey which began when he acquired 29 volumes of Cicero’s speeches and letters from a bookshop in Oxford.
A fierce defender of democratic ideals, Cicero was unable to prevent the capitulation of his beloved Republic into dictatorship, and was executed for his beliefs. He also left us with a philosophical grounding that’s as apt today as it was 2 000 years ago.
Among the lessons is that for democracy to flourish, citizens must attack tyranny and corruption at every opportunity. And he urged us to retain a reverence for history and learning, because “to be ignorant of what has occurred before you were born, is to remain always a child.” We can sure learn a lot from dead guys.
From Biznews community member Matthews Letlape
It is indeed the truth in what you say. Tyranny and corruption must be attacked in every opportunity and by any means including songs, books, movies and even demonstrations. The state of affairs in South Africa is worrying and needs to be addressed. Since No.1 took over, the rand is slipping like a rain and everything is expensive, to say the least, this situation is a ticking time bomb and anytime it may burst.
