Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar was born on the 26th of April 121.
His stoic tome Meditations, was written in Greek, while on campaign, between 170 and 180.
It is still revered as a literary monument, to a philosophy of service and duty; describing how to find and preserve equanimity, in the midst of conflict, by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration.
He is regarded as the last of "the five good emperors", a phrase coined by the political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli in 1503.
"From the study of this history we may also learn how a good government is to be established; for while all the emperors who succeeded to the throne by birth, except Titus, were bad, all were good who succeeded by adoption, as in the case of the five from Nerva to Marcus.
But as soon as the empire fell once more to the heirs by birth, its ruin recommenced"...
If you would like to read more...The Rest is Silence, available now:
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Until the 31st of October 2012, 100% of the proceeds, from sales of both versions, go to the charity Care of Police Survivors.
JP.
This is just the latest in a long line of very compelling, yet chilling blogs from James. It's clear that there are some extremely murky financial and ideological connections which MUST be investigated further.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, it might be worth pointing out that Gibbs, amongst others, is guilty of creating a false dichotomy in relation to roles within the police service family. Suppose that we accept, for the purposes of this dicussion only, that there are some jobs which are currently done by warranted officers that do not require warranted powers. This does not mean that these jobs can only be done efficiently if staffed by private contractors. To suggest otherwise is wholly fallacious on a number of grounds. Forces have had civilian support staff in many roles for a very long time.
In one of my own blogs, "When Logic Is Outsourced", I questioned how it can possibly be that outsourcing saves money at all, let alone provide savings for the client AND profit for the supplier.
We have seen this week what happens when a private contractor is trusted to provide staff for what is seen as low-wage, low tech jobs. If we pare dedicated public sector workers (such as police and army for example), who will be there to bale out the private contractor when they go bust, or otherwise fail to deliver?