[P2P-F] Fwd: Ancient Athens didn't have politicians. Is there a lesson for us?

[M. Fioretti]

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 22:58:52 PM +0100, Orsan Senalp wrote:

> Since the demise of the Athenian model -which was physically made
> possible thanks to the slave labour so that every citizen had the
> time to govern or learn how to govern things when their turn came
> up...

I really think that the first thing that made the "Athenian model"
possible in the first place was that their world was much simpler and
smaller. They used tools, clothes, foods, weapons, houses, medicines
and what not that, by and large were manufactured:

- very close, in places they could realistically visit if they already
  weren't out of their door

- with procedures simple, visible, touchable enough to allow almost
  every citizen with a working brain to "get" how they worked and
   grasp at least the biggest implications.

and everybody else on the planet lived in the same way, therefore it
wasn't possible for somebody living on the opposite side of the planet
to, say, pollute so much that it would harm YOUR life. Or send drones
your way in a few hours, for that matter, or block your
communications.

IMHO, such conditions were the main if not only thing that made it
possible for every citizen to "learn how to govern things when their
turn came" without making a mess. There was much less to learn than
today.

Marco
http://mfioretti.com