{"id":3529,"date":"2013-11-01T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/?p=3529"},"modified":"2013-10-28T16:24:42","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T20:24:42","slug":"jay-samons-what-follows-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/2013\/11\/01\/jay-samons-what-follows-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Samons & ‘What follows Democracy?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. Samons gave his famous Trireme lecture last Tuesday – a most exciting highlight of CC101 according to our alumni!<\/p>\n

Refresh your memory with some select quotes from previous<\/a> years:<\/p>\n

  • \n

    \u201cTriremes were built to kill. You can\u2019t have fun on a trireme. You can\u2019t water-ski behind one. You can\u2019t hold an afternoon BBQ on one. You can\u2019t do anything but kill on a trireme.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    \u201cWhy did the Athenians beat the Persians? Because the Persians showed up to the wars with wicker shields. Wicker. The Persians showed up with Pier 1 armor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    \u201cWhat do you know about Sparta? Leather underwear (because you have all seen\u00a0that terrible movie<\/a>. Look, even the Greeks didn\u2019t wear leather underwear and do you know why? Because chafing is a universal concept, scholars.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    \u201cThe poets said Pericles\u2019 head was shaped like a \u2018sea-onion\u2019. I don\u2019t know what a sea-onion is but you don\u2019t want your head to be shaped like one. It\u2019s not a good look.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    \u201cSome gods like their wine poured on the ground because that\u2019s how they like it: dirty. It\u2019s good to be a god.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    “Assembly of Citizens is the most important organ of the\u00a0polis<\/em>. Are we going to war? These are the types of issues the Assembly\u00a0directly <\/em>voted on. Imagine that\u2026 You came into this place thinking democracy is great for you have freedom to vote, to occupy. Because we are the 99%.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n

    Prof. Samons\u00a0speaks<\/a> more of democracy:<\/p>\n

    \u201cHow would Plato describe America? We are primed for tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cPlato would be so appalled by the television and internet that he would commend us for keeping it together this long.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Indeed, a centerpiece of our\u00a0Alum Advice<\/a> for new Core students, is:<\/p>\n

    Beware the man whose trireme or codpiece is more impressive than yours. <\/strong>
    \n~ Jonah Blustain (Core 2007, CAS 2009)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    A most relevant\u00a0post<\/a> from Gawker<\/em>, titled ‘Americans Done With U.S. Democracy, But What Will They Choose Instead?’<\/p>\n

    Having learned what happens when giant babies are elected to govern the United States, Americans are very disgusted with their government. They like the Medicare and\u00a0Medicaid and Social Security and Obamacare and Prescription Drug Benefits, but they don’t like\u00a0democracy<\/em>, which is a pretty weird way to run a country.
    \n…
    \nThis republic has dragged on for a very long time, and once\u00a0the Capitol is burned down, nobody will really miss it. That rich white people were expected to do their lobbying and governing from a poor black city with no government representation was always a cosmic prank, and few will mourn the end of the “federal city.” But what’s next?
    \n…
    \nMillions may be killed in house-to-house combat, what with the hundreds of millions of guns in this country, or people might just continue to stay inside with their TVs. California will likely join Oregon and Washington and maybe British Columbia, and the South will finally get to fly that Confederate Flag as it sinks deeper into poverty and environmental degradation. New York and coastal New England will probably unite as the Republic of Acela, while the fracking corporations will seize as much of the interior as they can. Life may be better or it may be worse or it may be roughly the same, with the very rich still very rich. (There will be no appreciable change in Florida.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The post proceeds to provide a poll, asking what the next form of government should be. Funny stuff:<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Prof. Samons gave his famous Trireme lecture last Tuesday – a most exciting highlight of CC101 according to our alumni! Refresh your memory with some select quotes from previous years: \u201cTriremes were built to kill. You can\u2019t have fun on a trireme. You can\u2019t water-ski behind one. You can\u2019t hold an afternoon BBQ on one. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[898,189,477,3860,4261,1],"tags":[2866,3689,4332,48539,4345,48538,48537,48540],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3567,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions\/3567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}