I: THE NINE AND THEIR HALL:
On your left you can see the famous fresco "Allegory of Good and Evil Government" which was commissioned by the "Nova" (Council of Nine), the governing body of the Republic of Sienna in Northern Central Italy from Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the middle 14th century.
The times were good in Sienna. Not only was Sienna thriving economically and achieving great successes and prominence in the labyrinth of Italian politics far outpacing its relative size, it was also politically stable: The Nine Families (Noveschi) which dominated Sienese politics held the Government firmly at hand since 1280.
These families were not of a particular noble stock - as a matter of fact, the true nobility of Sienna was outright excluded from politics. Nor were they representatives of the People at large - no, the prudent, practical families who ruled Sienna were the great merchants and bankers who secure their place in the city because much of its prosperity was due to their skillful work in managing Papal and Imperial funds.
It is no wonder that such a serious and hardworking group of individuals would not look for anything fanciful in their council chamber - the Sala dei Nove ("The Hall of Nine"), just as the convention they have used in naming their form of government, its principal seats and supporting faction may suggest, these were people inclined to spell out their plans and aspiration with all the charm and color of a PowerPoint presentation .
The fact that Lorenzetti had produced one of the finest pieces of political Renaissance art for them is purely incidental. The Nine had left nothing for the imagination, even insisting he writes down the names of the figurative abstractions next to their representation. Were they alive today, they would have plastered the walls with Excel sheets. Of course, their prudence dictated that they get the best artist money can buy and posterity is left to thank the vagaries and paradoxes of Plutocracy for the happy result.
The Allegory is very simple: On the one hand, it outlines the virtues that a State ought to be governed by and the blessings a government guided by them would bring to both the City and the Countryside - the various citizens and councilors of Sienna are tied to each other by the cords of Concord (the pun is definitely intended), these cords are tied to the Scales of Justice, presided over by the abstract figure of Sienna herself. Above her head sits Wisdom in all his distant, golden glory while on another throne sits the Rightful Ruler, assisted by a council of Virtues: Peace, Fortitude, Prudence, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice.
Opposite that fortunate display we have the Vices which corrupt government and the myriad travails of the People living both in the City and the Countryside that must follow. That evil band is represented by the Tyrant surrounded by Fraud. Fury, Cruelty, Deceit, Division and War. His feet rest on the Goat of Luxury and above his head are hovering Avarice and Pride, who rule tyrants.
One figure which my fellow Americans would have expected to appear is missing: Liberty. in the entire fresco, nowhere is this essential feature of all self respecting Republics (in the American way of thinking) is present. The closest we come to that is the state of the figure of Justice, which is bound helplessly on the Evil side of the painting and seats freely and honorably in the Council of the Virtues on the Good side.
The Tyrant is therefore not a Tyrant due to the level he exerts over the People but due to the way he uses theses powers to indulge his own council of vices and his preventing of Justice from doing her proper work. Taxes are even mentioned as a positive tribute to the Government of Virtue! Clearly, Lorenzetti had a strict I Liberali non deve applicare policy.
The People of Sienna are also not present in either choosing or participating in their government. The councilors lead them in the Communal abeyance to the Government of the Virtues, but they are not active. It is expected of them to obey and follow the Virtues and their virtuous, rightful leaders, who are the manifestation and servants of Wisdom himself, of which the common people have no part.
At the end of the year 1348 the very same as the finishing of the Allegory, the first cases if the Black Death would hit Italy- this calamity would soon sweep the Nine out of their beloved Hall in favor of something more resembling a government of, by and for the People- but such is the way of things
II: ON THE GOOD SENSE OF THE PEOPLE
In this country, one of the most useful clichés afforded for the use of politicians and pundits was that they "Trust in the good sense of the American People" - usually in expressing the hope that this good sense would lead the said American People to follow the speaker or reject his or her enemies - it fell out of common use lately, in my opinion, to the great loss and deprivation of the Public.
The idea that the Common People possess "good sense" is a fairly recent one even in self-asserted republics and yet, it seems that it is already getting out of fashion in our increasingly bureaucratic and expert-ruled society.
Indeed if there is one thing radicals on both Left and Right seems to agree is that not only are the People incapable of self-government - be it due to their innate prejudices against particular groups and "false consciousness" preventing them for striving towards a more "equitable" future or because they are gullible fools who worship at the altar of Democracy- a god that, apparently, failed.
While this may or may not be true about certain peoples - a certain nation comes to mind, having being described to me as "the stupidest well-educated people in the world" - I find it baffling when applied to the American People.
Descending almost entirely from the poor, "wretched refuse" (as Bill Murray dubbed us in the beloved 1980s film Stripes) of their home countries, thrown onto a continent completely devoid of the Civilization they were accustomed to and filled to the brim with warlike, proud nations jealous of their territory and their power, they have managed not only to carve out their own sovereign land of peace and quite - they actually managed to become the freest, most prosperous and most powerful nation in the world. A group of hateful imbecilic dupes would have never managed that.
This does not apply just to the people present at the time of the founding. America was rarely the destination of satisfied, happy elites seeking to create to themselves an Olympus of indulgence - these can create Olympian heights just as well as in their home countries, thus saving the traveler's insurance and customs expenses.
Nor was any group of immigrants road ever paved with gold or cushioned - the people who migrate to America are poor, and not only do the poor rarely find universally warm reception wherever they go - the self sufficiency ethos of America - wherever fully adhered to or not - means that every new group of immigrants must work its way not only to make a decent livelihood - and climb their way up the ephemeral, regionalized and multiple social ladders of the United States - but also to build their own cultural institutions- schools, churches, political action committees and even businesses catering to either their own members or people wishing to have a taste of their ways.
By this struggle, every group in America eventually finds itself integrated not only onto the present majority but also into the majority of the Past - adopting the common ethos and mythos of America. Men whose actual forefathers were an ocean away during the great events of 1775 and 1861 speak, without affectation or deceit - of the mighty struggle of the Revolution and the Civil War with such a sense of ownership that One would be excused to think their forbearers had dragged the guns of Ticonderoga through the wilderness of Northern New York or rebuffed the assault on Little Round Top (I recommend History Courses, New York, Quebec and the Water Route to the Center of the World and Avi's Conversational Corner for everyone who is interested in the early history of the United States). Indeed, the various state-identities are usually more pronounced than those of national origin.
The American People is not only an imminent, existing and manifested entity, it is one which manifests itself throughout the generations and manages to assimilate into itself all that come onto these blessed shores. United into a vital, energetic, frothing public of a single, enterprising nation, the American People cannot be accused of dullness, ignorance or unthinking presuppositions. We should take great care before dismissing their historic judgments.
III: PUBLIC TUTORS OR JESTERS?
This point is actually in contention between two groups of Americans.
American journalists and pundits like to praise their own industry as the "fifth estate" or sometimes "the fourth branch of government", regarding themselves as the teachers of the American Public who gives him their opinions.
The general Public, on the other hand, regards journalists with a combination of contempt and dismissal. Every American has a favorite paper or newspaperman - usually the one that tends to agree with him - and the American journalistic profession has long being divided along partisan and ideological lines - and yet eventually a consensus tends to emerge - which the Newsies have to acquiesce to while pretending they have brought it into being, even when they opposed it. Clearly, the American People are correct in their opinion that it is the Newspaper who receives its opinion from its chosen audience and not the other way around.
Other groups of self-styled public instructors are academics, actors, politicians, public intellectuals and bureaucrats - all asserting either in public or in private that their work is important and influences the way the American Public sees the world, that they are their masters - while in fact they are either their servants, catering to their already palpable tastes, or simple oddballs which Uncle Sam and Mother Columbia keep around for their own amusement and diversion. Some of the greatest and most beloved comedic and dramatic actors had discovered too late that the avid admirers of their work simply did not care for or about their opinions - and resented them when the evening's entertainment turned out to be a blue-nosed lecture on their various and sundry moral and political failings. An influential linguist-turned-political commentator discovered lately that the Americans' patience for him had run out after he expressed outright support of one dictator too many.
Even panics which first appear in the media appear to be merely reflections of public fears and anxieties. The Health Scare of 2020 started its way by rumors which the Federal government attempted to alleviate by adopting a string of measures which the media was at first reluctant to endorse. The riots and violence of the Summer appeared to have been a manifestation of public angst and suspicion of authorities that became increasingly arbitrary and uncaring. The wild accusations of election fraud were also generated and carried by rumor, which professional media merely reflected or opposed, but was in all cases powerless to stop, only the aforementioned, often ridiculed good sense of the American People can be credited for eventually rejecting all the incorrect assumptions about the state of Public Health, of Police Violence and of the Security of Elections, despite the best efforts of interested parties and neurotics to maintain false beliefs and untenable state of hysteria.