Re: OT ; Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 1 Oct 2024 19:03:31 GMT, rbowman wrote:

On Mon, 30 Sep 2024 23:34:55 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
 

And the Athenians, of course, came up with what they called
“democracy”. We use the term nowadays, but we use it for quite a
different concept from the way they practised it (because our concepts
of equality and fairness have evolved a bit beyond the era of slavery
and women as property).

 
iirc before they managed to weaken each other to allow external enemies
to take over the whole mess Sparta prevailed.

The Greeks squabbled amongst themselves, but they came together when
necessary to face a common enemy.

And then, after that enemy was defeated, they went back to squabbling
again.

The Romans were the only ones smart enough to conquer them.

And the USA? Some call it a “democracy”, and it does seem close to the
Athenian model -- perhaps a bit too close. Other nations have taken the
“all people are created equal” idea a bit more seriously, by observing the
obvious corollary: if everybody is equal, their votes should count
equally, too.