×
App Icon
The Standard e-Paper
Home To Bold Columnists
★★★★ - on Play Store
Download Now

Like ancient Athens, US is arrogant, powerful, declining and in denial

Vocalize Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Vocalize

The Statue of Liberty looks out on the lower Manhattan skyline, January 2014. [AP photo

The United States behaves as if it is a 21st Century ancient Athens and Rome rolled into one.

It is arrogant, discriminatory, powerful, declining and in denial. Athens collapsed because, despite having brilliant philosophers like Thales, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, it also had tyrannically disdainful imperialists like Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles who believed that forcing others to be like Athens, or discriminating against them, was divine.

Premium Article

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Fact-first reporting that puts you at the heart of the newsroom. Subscribe for full access.
Continue Reading  →
What you get
  • Unlimited access to all premium content
  • Ad-free browsing experience
  • Mobile-optimised reading
  • Weekly newsletters & digests
Pay via
M - PESA
VISA
Airtel Money
Secure Payments Kenya's most trusted newsroom since 1902
Sports
Thunder top Northern Kenya Championships
Sports
Youngsters impress at Junior Golf Series at Vipingo
Athletics
Kenyans shift focus to Zurich as Diamond League enters homestretch
Golf
Ngeera and Mwakitawa shine at Western Junior Open in Kakamega