I bet this was submitted earlier, and you know the story very well (we are living it). Still it was an interesting listen, and the last sentence almost made me cry.
I bet this was submitted earlier, and you know the story very well (we are living it). Still it was an interesting listen, and the last sentence almost made me cry.
Can I just get the Cliff's Notes?
Not wanting to listen Parenti battling a microphone for 1h? :gulag:
Western history trains us to not think about past in terms of social struggle and justice (well Caesar is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind there). Parenti talks about progressive social reforms that Caesar was trying to implement - against the will and interests of oligarchy, and you know what happens next. As opposed to the standard historical image of brutal dictator removed by a few noblemen, or whatever was written in your history book.
Parenti makes many parallels with modern society, with his typical humor here and there, and that's basically it. I knew it all in advance but I still don't regret listening to it. Sometimes I just do it during my zone 2 (running) or when I prepare meals, it's really rather light and requires basically zero knowledge of history/economy or anything really.
Julius Caesar was popular, had policies that helped the average person, and cracked down on corruption so the landowners and wealthy conspired to have him assassinated and smeared him as a tyrant.
This is the Cliff's Notes. It's the short form of the book he wrote of the same name.