Did They Stab the Wrong Guy?

Holding the voters accountable

The Ides of March are made famous by Gaius Julius Caesar. You may recall the history lesson, of the conspirators who stabbed him in the senate in 44BC. It was a momentous event that occurred after a momentous decision was made by approximately 60 conspirators. They were members of the Optimate, conservatives and backers of Pompey. That they were conservatives meant they were in support of the republic. They saw Caesar as a power mad dog that had to be taken down.

Caesar was a successful general. He brought much real estate into the Roman orbit. He had many friends, in all places. He was skilled in everything one needs to be skilled in to have a successful political career. The Optimate feared him, and so they should have. There would be no stopping Caesar if he had his way. So they decided to stop him. And they did.

The Optimate forgot to ask the primary question when bringing down a leader. That question is this: who will replace him? They may have stopped one of the players, but they didn’t stop the sequence of events from unfolding. Murdering Caesar, who was taking advantage of the results of a civil war, and stepping into a power vacuum, removed the man, but not the vacuum. The civil war began again. Caesar was replaced by Octavius, Caesar’s heir. We know him now as Augustus, the first Roman “president for life.” AKA, a monarch. Rome was an empire that now had an emperor.

What the Optimate was afraid of, happened in spite of their interfering with the flow.

What is the real lesson here?

Old Rome was a republic, a government of laws. However, a part of the system was voted in. The republic was a limited democracy. The Senate was under the full control of the old, patrician families. An oligarchy. But there was absolutely no universal suffrage like we have. In spite of those limitations, Rome, like Athens before it, succumbed to natural law. That is that everything new, gets old, and then dies. Political systems are not exempt. Nor are civilizations. If you have studied even a minuscule bit of history, you know the story. People like to give reasons for why civilizations fail. One reasons is that shit happens. Diseases, floods, and rocks from outer space, impact people. It weakens the civilization, and then new strong men step up to take advantage of the situation.

Strong men are a part of the natural order of life. Across nature we see that strong males control groups. Lions, horses, monkeys, apes, whenever a biological life forms groups, be it a pride, a herd or a human grouping, leaders emerge. Sometimes they are challenged, and a fight or war ensues. Or when they grow old or weak from sickness, other leaders strike. Among humans, those leaders have followers that choose to follow them.

Now we come to the crux of the matter. Leaders can organize only with followers to carry out the many tasks it takes to build an organization. Why they choose one leader over another is a discussion for later. The question I pose, when I ask if the Optimate stabbed the wrong guy, is what about all those supporters who made this guy possible? What responsibility did they bare?

What responsibility do voters bare?

George Bush took down a foreign government, Iraq, and thought nothing of it. Bush, the darling of the right, like most people in politics, has an ego the size of the Grand Canyon. But Bush could not have done anything without the support of the government and the people. The voters, that is, specifically the ones who put him into power. Do those voters bare any responsibility for the 20 years of a bull shit engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq? What about the results of that madness? ISIS.

The USA was just as stupid as the Optimate; no one asked the right question about who or what would replace the power vacuums. Subsequently, neither did Hilary Clinton, or that darling of the left, Barrack Obama when they decided to take Qaddafi down.

I repeat the question; what responsibility do the voters have when they put such individuals into office? Because when they vote, they vote for individuals to do the work, of defending the nation, and playing diplomacy with other nations. Or invading them. Because no government ever could do it without the people to obey, and pay taxes.

Funny, isn’t it, that the Ideas of March are exactly one month until your hard earned money is due to the government. Whether or not they start wars and kill presidents of other nations, it is your duty to pay those taxes.

What is the alternative? Well, if you take the Optimate way, make sure you stab the right guys.

Yes, instead of violence, we can elect a new president. Nonetheless, he won’t make a difference. He will be a part of the same system.

Caesar couldn’t save himself, and after a few stabs, he accepted his fate. And then, it was the Optimate’s turn to try and save their cause. Shakespeare has them accept their fate. Because the Optimate killed the wrong man. Which then continued the chaos of civil war, which brought about exactly what they were afraid of, a dictator for life.

Who was the right one to stab?

Caesar’s supporters. That’s who. Those going along with the program must also be destroyed. Because it is not about Caesar. It is about the natural order of things.

Sure, someone can take down Putin. But another Putin by another name would step into the breach. Until the state he commanded is brought down, it will be the same shit, on a different day.

Eventually, the modern state will give way. There’s too much corruption for it to last another 50 years. What happens next? That is unknowable until the next strong man steps forward to create a new state. He’ll be looking for followers.

Think, before you follow.