2012/10/28

athenian democracy

the modern word 'idiot' finds its origins in the ancient Greek word ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs, meaning a private person who is not actively interested in politics. According to Thucydides, Pericles may have declared in a funeral oration: We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.