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user-inactivated  ·  3695 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ancient Bickering: What the Founding Fathers Knew about the Classics

Yeah, I do.

At the same time, Plato has stood a full 2400 years' test (yes, he's been more exposed to the masses since the Gutenberg press, but his writings were world-famous long before that). Cicero is supposedly the man with the single most influence on the Latin language, and thus all the others. Meanwhile, the Declaration/Constitution is a transitory document which, while poetic, is short-sighted, narrow and most importantly left behind no intelligent mechanism for its own change.

The Ancient Greeks' ideas on virtue and the human condition ring true 2400 years later; the Second Amendment was anachronistic within about a damn week.