Short Quiz – Slavery vs. Revolution: Basic Social Anatomy

[johnkarls]

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1. Do you think the Egyptian pyramids were built by slaves or by well-paid unionized workers?

2. Do you think the Acropolis of Athens was built by slaves or by well-paid unionized workers?

3. Do you think those Roman triremes (seagoing war galleys with three decks of oarsmen) were powered by slaves or well-paid unionized workers?

4. Was Spartacus a Roman slave-gladiator who led a famous slave revolt which eventually attracted 30,000 rebel slaves and whose defeat required THREE Roman military campaigns, the last involving 40,000 highly-trained Roman soldiers? Was this imbroglio portrayed in a 1960 epic Hollywood movie starring Kirk Douglas that received the Golden Globe for Best Picture and 4 Oscars?

5. BTW, have historians recorded that during the THIRD Roman military campaign, the 40,000 Roman soldiers in the legions facing Spartacus HAD TO BE REPEATEDLY “DECIMATED” in order to force them to fight the slaves?

6. Is “decimated” one of those words in the English language whose meaning has undergone a radical change over time?

7. Was it necessary to REPEATEDLY “DECIMATE” the Roman legions in order to force them to fight the slaves BECAUSE THE ROMAN SOLDIERS SYMPATHIZED WITH THE SLAVES???

8. How did the Roman slaves learn about Spartacus’ revolt in order to join it? The internet? Television? Radio? Telephone? Telegraph? Pamphlets following the invention of the printing press? Smoke signals? Or “word of mouth”?

9. In getting slaves to revolt, does the communication have to be truthful? For example, could it have been a ruse perpetrated by the Roman government to identify disloyal slaves?

10. In getting slaves to revolt, do the slaves need an expert appraisal of the chance of success in order to join – for example, based on relative numbers and available weapons? In this regard, was Nelson Mandela who led the successful South Africa independence movement, astounded at the success of the American Civil Rights Movement in obtaining its legislative successes of the 1960’s – because Mandela could NOT believe a racial minority could achieve such objectives?

11. Does the title of our focus book (“The Square and The Tower: Networks and Power From The Freemasons to Facebook”) describe one of the world’s foremost historians taking a second look at history through the lens of (1) vertical hierarchies (“The Tower”) comprising governments, armies, corporations, etc., versus (2) horizontal networks (The Public Square) comprising the people?

12. Does he provide a zillion historical examples of the tension between hierarchies and the people – sometimes erupting into revolution and sometimes not?

13. Is his “Part IX: Conclusion” humorously entitled “Facing Cyberia”?

14. Is he optimistic that the people can use their new tools, primarily cyber, to achieve their goals?

15. BTW, is Yours Truly guilty of extending our author’s historical analysis back to the ancient Egyptian/Greek/Roman civilizations that were built on slavery, whereas our focus book’s title ending in “From The Freemasons to Facebook” implies that our author wanted to confine his analysis to FREE common people and their horizontal networks?