Page 15 - GALIET WE PERIKLES: Thyucidides IV

Galiet & Galiet
you demand extreme loyalty, extreme patriotism to support the “imperial dignity of Athens.”
Must you, O Perikles, imperialist, must you go on suffering from the phallic- phalanx-complex, must you go on commanding solid rectangular muscular masses of erect men to conquer, defend, siege, enslave and murder to maintain the imperial glory. Must we, citizens, must we go on obeying, must we, must we? Who are we? O, the mighty phalanx for the safety of the phalanx depends, above all, on our solidarity and our discipline. O we are the phalanx, its hideous members! O Perikles, must we go on believing your statements, O Perikles, must we, must we drown in our struggles: “we must try to think of ourselves as islanders; we must abandon our land and our houses, and safeguard the sea and the city” (1.122). Indeed, when Athens calls, we must endure hardship, we must give it all up, if the beloved Athens calls you, we must obey, and we must sacrifice!
This is how, I, Perikles, Athens’s impostor, from the heights of the Acropolis, manipulate, you, my dear citizens into sacrifice and selflessness for the safety of all. I own language: I speak for you, I am your voice. I am the glorious and faithful “we” (my sublime speeches are conveniently thundered with them). In “we” there is no “you” nor “I” nor “me.” In “we” there is foremost obligation and duty to the state. For I, Perikles, shall also appeal to another imperceptible mask: feminine guilt beneath masculine duty. We are in moral debt to our ancestors. We must “honor our ancestors” who risked and abandoned it all for the future generations. O, Perikles, are our ancestors our saviors or enslavers, heroes or cowards? I, Perikles, shall deceive you all into the prison of duty, guilt and responsibility for we owe the welfare of the state to them: “we must live up to the standard they set: we must resist our enemies in any and every way, and try to leave to those who come after us an Athens that is great as ever ... for they, by their courage and their virtues, have handed it onto us, a free country” (1.144). It is with loyalty to the empire that we must repay this blood debt “it was not without blood and toil that
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