Jiang links the ritualized culture of public speech to the emergence of democracy.
Topic brief
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Political order
Europe's feudal military hierarchy made adaptation hard because changing tactics against Vikings would have required changing the social hierarchy that armored knights supported.
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Key Notes
Europe's feudal military hierarchy made adaptation hard because changing tactics against Vikings would have required changing the social hierarchy that armored knights supported.
Because Europe could not be unified by military conquest alone, rulers needed legitimacy: people had to believe the ruler was rightful.
Jiang describes the succession problem created by Eurydice as extremely controversial and 'like dynamite almost' because it threatened to push Alexander out of the line of succession.
Timestamped Evidence
"Because when you memorize the Iliad, you learn how to make a great speech. All right? And you understood that for me to make..."
"Right? The Vikings knew all these places, and so these places were perfect to pillage. And that's what really started the Viking Age, the..."
"These knights would take this land and run it to farmers. Over time, as we know, farmers will incur a lot of debt. Which..."
"Okay? So, if you were a navy like Athens, you were a democracy. If you had a cavalry like the Macedonians, you were a..."
"So, the structure of your military determined the structure of your political system. So, the Europeans purposely did not respond to Viking threat because..."
"It was extremely hard to unite Europe. Please remember, Rome was not a European empire. It was a Mediterranean empire. That's a huge difference...."
"...Cleopatra Eurydice, it's extremely controversial. Controversial. Okay, and it disrupts the political order of Macedonia. The first reason is Cleopatra Eurydice, she is actually..."
"...in France. 99.99%. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand to be? Something. Okay? So during..."
Relevant Lectures And Readings
A source-grounded reading of Homer as civilizational engine: the Iliad trains Greeks to fight with speeches, poetry projects movies onto the world, language controls time and space, and the poet becomes the flame through...
The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not Roman, and not much of an empire.
A source-grounded reading of Alexander as the inheriting son: expansionist, obedience-hungry, and unable to hear correction except as betrayal.
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