Blog break 13: A question


Fellow sufferers, what do you think could have happened to human civilization had the barbarians [Persians so to speak] overrun Athens and stayed there to lord it over the Greeks?

Once you finish to think about it, let us be grateful for those few men and women who stood up for freedom and who would rather die than be slaves!

And that my friends is the end of this long post ๐Ÿ˜›

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

21 thoughts on “Blog break 13: A question

  1. Alastair says:

    I don’t think Tea would have made it to the UK

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  2. Mordanicus says:

    I do not know, because I have too less knowledge to do your interesting exercise. A small variation in the independent variables, might cause a great change in the dependent variables.

    I prefer to look at the future, and to imagine what we need to do to prevent our civilization to be overrun by the new barbarians.

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    • makagutu says:

      I like the idea of looking into the future to ensure that we are not overrun by any new barbarians but then history, though mostly written by the victors, makes interesting study!

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  3. I can’t see a lot of difference between that and the occupation forces of Alexander, who subjugated and lorded it over the Persians, the Indians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Jews, I could go on. Mankind has fought with itself for over 6,000 years, I’m always mystified that there are any of us left.

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    • makagutu says:

      I agree with you that throughout our known history we have been engaged in hostilities, some in the name of a god, some to expand territories, some to have control minerals and generally to enslave. There are times when these conquests have left to a transfer of knowledge from the vanquished or from the victors, one only wonders if these couldn’t have been achieved through peaceful means.

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      • I’ve just finished watching a 14-Episode BBC series on the Rise and Fall of Rome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB732wBSTvw), and in some of the battles, there are as many as 70, 000 casualties. America lost roughly 60,000 men during the entire Korean conflict and about the same number in Viet Nam, in each case, during the entire war. Can anyone imagine losing that many men in a single day? In a single battle? And this went on, intermittently, for over half a millennium – brutal, bloody death was a way of life, as ironic as that may sound.

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  4. john zande says:

    Don’t be too harsh on the Persians, my learned friend. They wrote the first moral code, built the first universities, were the first to established formalised astronomical observatories, the first to formulate common law system and tickled at the first stirrings of human rights. Gilgamesh was the first to fire the brick, and some of the Persian poetry is the finest ever written.

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  5. aguywithoutboxersRoger Poladopoulos says:

    Subjugate the Greeks? Horror of horrors! LOL! Yes, I am prejudiced when it comes to my Mother Country. Who knows where we would be today.

    BTW: I love tea, abhor coffee. I can’t even abide the smell of it!

    Much love and hugs, my Nairobi brother!

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    • makagutu says:

      They did to some Greeks like the Ionians, the Greek in Corinth and some other places. It is the Athenians who after the Persians burnt Attica decided they couldn’t take it anymore and organised themselves to chase away the occupying forces.

      I like both coffee and tea ๐Ÿ˜›

      Many hugs my brother

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  6. niquesdawson says:

    Hehehe. Long post indeed.

    I have thought about it.

    Am still thinking though.

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  7. Every time I read about the Greeks and I encounter the word ‘barbarians’ I realise how little has changed.
    Great question, Mak! I’ll go and think about it some more, now. ๐Ÿ™‚

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