As True Now As It Was In The 1840s

[poliphilo]

"The farmer imagines power and place are fine things. But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne."

Emerson: on Compensation

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

This is a common trope of Augustus stories, with its roots in ancient sources from the time. Almost anyone covering his time as emperor focuses on the idea that he may have appeared publicly successful, but was privately unhappy (e.g. in the book I reviewed on Saturday). The 'real masters' in his case would be the army, though their power only really becomes clear with later emperors.

I think it is rather fallacious, though. Sure, there's enough truth in it to make it plausible and appealing as a notion - acquiring and maintaining power of any kind is hard work. But above all I think it is a comforting story told to themselves by the powerless. It's interesting to see how widespread the trope is, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Emerson would have read his Roman histories.

I believe the trope. Anyone who achieves power will have had to have made promises, done deals and so on. That said, I imagine a Roman Emperor would have had more real power than an American President.