Secessio plebis

The last secession was in 287 BC. Why were there not secessions after it? The reason has to do with the growth of the Roman Empire. Rome’s conquests really went into overdrive after that and they conquered many kingdoms. Along with those conquests, there came a lot of slaves. This totally changed the dynamics. After a while, the wealthy depended not on their poor fellow Romans to farm or make goods, but on slaves. Now it did not matter if the plebes didn’t not show up.<p>I fear that globalization may have served the same function in the United States. The wealthy don’t depend on their poor fellow Americans to provide goods for them and work for them. They depend on good produced oversees and even for domestic production on immigrant labor(look at who gets employed in fame labor or domestic help). They have an alternative to their fellow poor Americans.<p>Now, a strike in the US has a good chance of resulting not in long term employee benefits like it did before, but in the plant being moved oversees.<p>Unfortunately, this has bad consequences. When the relatively peaceful secession was no longer an option, Rome devolved into outright violence in the Roman Revolutions which saw demagogues and authoritarians mobilize the disaffected poor to kill their enemies and establish their power. When it all ended with the ascension of Augustus in AD 31, Rome was a republic in name only, but in reality a military dictatorship. And the people were generally happy with it because it brought peace after decades of violence and bloodshed.<p>I hope our democracies can find a better solution to the issues of wealth inequality, before this story happens to us too.

This exists in modern American history as well under the term ‘solidarity’. For example, in the 50s if the teachers union went on strike, so did bus drivers. It made labor movements strong.<p>We’re far from that type of world now. If you take the recent issues at Amazon, we had an isolated case of solidarity with one tech engineer backing up warehouse workers. That won’t get it done.<p>The general public, in it’s vastness, ironically, vastly underestimates it’s power. All it takes is for us to stop going to movies, restaurants, flights, etc , and suddenly we are not powerless against any industry.<p>The rest of Amazon does not backup the warehouse workers. It is something to think about, we all play a part. Lack of solidarity is one of the most disheartening developments of our present.

Just for your interest inspired by the &quot;secessio plebis&quot; there was an initiative (failed) against Mussolini&#x27;s government in 1924, after the killing of Giacomo Matteotti:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;it.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Secessione_dell%27Aventino" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;it.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Secessione_dell%27Aventino</a><p>(not too bad in Google Translate)<p>Shorter article on en.wikipedia:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aventine_Secession_(20th_century)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aventine_Secession_(20th_centu...</a><p>so it is still an used expression in italian to &quot;retire on the Aventine Hill&quot;, particularly regarding political debates meaning &quot;to boycott&quot;.

One thing I don’t really have a sense for is how much did Roman culture change over the centuries of its existence?<p>The article says there were estimated to have been five of these <i>general strikes</i> over a two century period.<p>That feels a bit like saying there were a handful of major upsets on &#x2F;r&#x2F;politics over the past couple hundred years — the timespan seems very long!<p>Was Roman culture pretty static for a very long time?

A similar popular revolt to these secessii plebies took place in Industrial Revolution - era England in the years before 1832. The districts -- called boroughs -- were laid out according to agrarian-culture history instead of population. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reform_Act_1832" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Reform_Act_1832</a><p>The United States presently has a similar imbalance of political power between states with large cities and more rural states.<p>These sorts of imbalances can lead to instability.

After the uprising of the 17th of June<p>The Secretary of the Writers&#x27; Union<p>Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee<p>Stating that the people<p>Had forfeited the confidence of the government<p>And could only win it back<p>By increased work quotas.<p>Would it not in that case be simpler<p>for the government<p>To dissolve the people<p>And elect another?<p>(Die Lösung, Berthold Brecht, 1953)

I&#x27;m in.

Until a vaccine is found for the virus, I think states will next begin limiting interstate travel. Or at least forcing a two-week quarantine on incoming visitors, like what Hawaii has done.<p>These states, or cluster of adjacent states, can effectively become their own operating government.<p>If the next door state has the virus running rampant, because they did a terrible job with their quarantine, then so be it. They will get travel restrictions from freely entering.<p>The interesting thing is, this scenario puts these cluster of states into positions of independence. The only thing missing, is to declare their own currency. At which point, the federation government will declare war.

As Elon Musk said yesterday on Joe Rogan:<p>&quot;If no one is making stuff... there is no stuff!&quot;