Comment of the Day: John Hulls: When Is Responsible Democratic Governance Possible? The Classical View: Never: "I think that Aristophanes is far more relevant with his 'Acharnians'...
...a more recent translation of which was the subject of one of my favorite London Review of Books pieces, which started out, "Just in times for George Bush not to read it before he blunders into Iraq...' http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n19/thomas-jones/short-cuts
In his excellent introduction, the review's author attributes much of the cause of the Peleponnesian war to foreign policy blunders and wishful thinking. Further quoting from the review:
The protagonist of Acharnians is an old farmer called Dikaiopolis. As the play opens, he is alone, waiting for a meeting of the Assembly to begin, the only citizen who’s bothered to turn up on time. He intends to make sure peace is on the agenda. It soon transpires, however, that the war is in the private interest of certain powerful individuals, who draw large salaries from the public purse to pay for diplomatic junkets and other essential business. So Dikaiopolis arranges to make his own private peace with the enemy, and secedes from the state. Newly independent, he enjoys free trade with the enemy and lives a life of debauched luxury...
