[HN Gopher] Cicero used humor to charm audiences-and humiliate o... ___________________________________________________________________ Cicero used humor to charm audiences-and humiliate opponents Author : diodorus Score : 40 points Date : 2021-06-06 02:09 UTC (20 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.wsj.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com) | SiVal wrote: | This past weekend was to have been the annual vigil in the park | in Hong Kong where thousands come out every year on June 4 in | remembrance of what really happened in Tiananmen Square. This | year, the park was empty. Not just a few, but empty. Those in | power made statements in the Mainland "media", whose job is to | persuade people to support those in power, about how | misinformation needed to be eliminated and the terrorists and | criminal elements behind it stopped for the sake of all the good | people of China. | | Of course in the end Cicero was silenced by those who were taking | power. You may have humor and charm, you may be well-behaved and | your claims may be correct, but if you are an impediment to the | agendas of those in power, they will silence you in whatever ways | they can unless others in society restrain them. | | It is the lesson of history that Noam Chomsky shouted from the | rooftops: when you use your power to silence speech you don't | like, you are corrupt, regardless of how you try to disguise it, | and the more power you have to do it, the more corrupt, until | absolute power corrupts absolutely or society refuses to allow it | and restrains you. | MR4D wrote: | > the end Cicero was silenced by those who were taking power. | | This is a spin on the fact that he was a participant in the | murder of Caesar. Cicero was trying to take back power that had | been lost to a very popular Leader by participating in the | murder of said leader.[0] The killers and conspirators involved | were all hunted down and killed. | | [0] - for those not up on Roman institutions, Dictator had a | different role than we would ascribe today, albeit with many | similarities. | User23 wrote: | > Of course in the end Cicero was silenced by those who were | taking power. | | The conflict between Cicero and Mark Antony is a splendid case | study of influence versus power and how that conflict ends when | power chooses to play its hand. | kthxb wrote: | I recommend Robert Harris' Cicero novels. They are not | historical, but very entertaining. | prox wrote: | Behind a paywall :/ | cblconfederate wrote: | He should be cancelled ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-06 23:00 UTC)