In recent times there has been much talk about the imminent
collapse of the liberal rules based order with Russia and China citied as the main culprits for this destabilisation. Combine this with COVID-19 pandemic and, as Dr Bobo Lo argues, 'nations have regressed into narrow self-interest'. He believes that the real issue 'is a collective Western failure to live up to the principles of liberalism, a failure exacerbated by gross policy misjudgements and fraying transatlantic and European unity'. How do we move forward form here?
Then, (at 15 mins),
how did people in Ancient Greece cope with sickness and disease?Dr Meghan Henning explains that they viewed the city as a body. 'If a city had suffered a disaster, such as famine and plague, like the body, it needed to be purged or cleansed with blood or fire' . The way to purify the polis was a ritual known as the pharmakos'. In short, this meant that often two people were expelled from the city and often killed. It was thought that two people who were selected were the elite but the reality was far different.