Volume 22, Number 2 · February 20, 1975
What Children Know About Politics
By Robert Coles
In her long essay 'The Great Beast,' written in 1939, Simone Weil tried to understand what she called 'the permanence and variability of national characteristics.' She was intent on showing that Hitlerism was indeed different from many other kinds of nationalist imperialism, but was by no means something new in the world's history. She insisted that Rome, a long-standing bête noire of hers, had anticipated the Nazis, and in fact was far more successful as a conqueror: a relatively larger number of people were subdued absolutely for a much longer time. Yet she was quick to point out that nations change, often unaccountably. She judged medieval Romans 'completely unlike' the ancient Romans. The latter had, in her eyes, perfected a ruthless military machine, harnessed to a 'centralized state.' The former were 'incapable of unity, order, or administration'; the various city-states to which they owed allegiance squabbled, but not in a vengeful or even, it seems, murderous way. Machiavelli mentions that in one of Florence's campaigns not a single soldier was killed.
Feature, 4428 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |