Ostracism: Ancient Greece’s Experiment With Cancel Culture
Getting voted off the political “island” for ten years
People tend to use the word “unprecedented” to describe our current era. In fact, it’s overused. Thesaurus.com even cleverly wrote an article to give you a list of other words so you don’t overuse it. Therefore, I’ll try one of their words — anomalous — as in deviating from the regular order.
While our times may deviate from the consistent order we’re used to over the past hundred years, they’re far from anomalous. Well, over a long enough time scale. For instance, ancient Athens suffered a terrible pandemic during a time of war and had a heated political climate. Sounds a bit like today, huh?
While science and immunity can solve pandemics, political fracturing is a tougher nut to crack. Although the ancient Greeks had a method. It involved a temporary banishment of a political figure for ten years by popular vote.
Think of the television show Survivor, but with politics. You’re also voted out of the country instead of “off the island.” However, unlike the series, ostracism allows you to come back to your political career once the term is ended with no ill will from the community. You continue as you were.
