Tacitus
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Thoughtlets. xxxvii.
Even the ancients wondered why patterns in human behaviour and events occur. We shouldn’t wonder at their wondering since they, like us, were concerned with prediction and control for matters of survival and social flourishing. “Perhaps there is a sort of cycle in all things, with changes of morality coming around again like seasonal changes.” Continue reading
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Thoughtlets. xxxii.
A scapegoat is (usually) a person or group of people unjustly blamed for some set of circumstances arising from the actions of others. Scapegoats bear the brunt of crowd hostility and, once identified by an angry mob, find themselves in no-win, dangerous — even lethal — situations. Scapegoating is as old as humankind. In The Annals, Continue reading
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Thoughtlets. xxix.
Today’s Thoughtlet is a quote on freedom of expression that originates with Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived in the first century CE. This quote, translated as follows, appears in Latin on the title page of the first edition of Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, “Seldom are men blessed with times in which they may Continue reading
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