There are aspects of behavior and human lives that have changed extraordinarily since the first classical historians, those intellectuals interested in investigating and describing in detail and scientifically what happened, began to relate their chronicles for posterity.
Thus, the Roman Republic and the Greeks of the classical era did not have a clear way of numbering the years, as we do, nor did they have a lasting calendar, and it fluctuated over the years. They had no notion of what a bacteria, an infection or an antiseptic is. Nor did they have police, separation of powers, or maps as we understand them. In addition, they had a life governed by rituals, sacrifices and libations that would be very foreign to us.
At the same time, there are aspects of the lives of the classics that are immediately familiar, like eating an omelette in a foreign country. For example, when Cicero loses his daughter, whom he adored, it is easy to feel his grief and her deep dejection, even though two thousand years separate us. We can also appreciate the sadness, respect and nostalgia that the Greeks transmit when they buried their comrades, very important moments for them. But there is another amazingly modern element worth noting: political sophistication. Classical historians transmit again and again the intrigues, the art of saying different things to different audiences with the same words, the distinction between generals who seek their personal glory (a majority, according to Thucydides) and those who seek the common good ( a minority), elaborate stratagems and rhetorical gimmicks to convince supporters and rivals. Reading Julius Caesar’s Gallic War is almost as recognizable as seeing Borgen or Ferreras’ gatherings on La Sexta.
In fact, it was a Greek, Aristotle, who defined the human being as Homo politicus, a political being. It makes sense and is surely the result of our high propensity to live in groups, in order to help each other, and our ability to speak. Communicating makes it possible to criticize, build coalitions, create reputations, betray, act in concert, win over the strongest and agree on norms. So let’s have some sympathy with our politicians. Unlike geometric progression, small percentages or diets, our brain understands politics with a certain naturalness, so it has a tendency to participate in it no matter how much some say they don’t like it. This makes it a profession with almost unparalleled public exposure and it is difficult to generate great consensus, which is why historians describe so many wars.
Let us think about it, then, when we look at the European Union, the greatest democratic and political agreement experiment in history, the union of 450 million people and 27 countries through non-violent means. Also when we talk about NATO, the most powerful military alliance since the Corinthian League was formed. Let us remember that NATO includes the coordination, doctrinal unification, compatibility of standards, joint command structures and mutual protection treaties of 30 culturally very different countries. Behind it is a work as colossal and difficult to appreciate as a Pollock painting for a neophyte.
Let us therefore value those who build, they have a much more difficult and thankless job than those who destroy or criticize: only Pollock could draw a Pollock, but anyone can burn one.
