Reply #18: Like a villager in the Roman Empire: what's it got to do with me?

[Hekate]

Some months back I just got so stunned by the same thought that this image came to me.

Our whole lives as Americans we are taught to believe that we have a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" and that as individuals we ought to participate and that we can have an effect. Although I've always known there are limits to that ideal, I have lived my life by it.

The cognitive dissonance created by the events of the past four years has been unspeakable. Finally I asked myself, if I am to be a commoner in a smallish city in a great empire, what do the actions of the Emperor have to do with me at all, except insofar as I avoid getting into trouble?

Maybe that's how a lot of decent, good-hearted, and well-meaning people get along in this life.

Brr.

I'm just not ready to give up yet. Of all the things America ought to be, having a sound-asleep populace is not one of them.

Hekate