18sep24

Accurate colour photo of today’s weather.

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• Buffer zones around abortion clinics to come into force at end of October, Home Office says
• A pager-bomb attack causes disarray for Hizbullah
• Supermoon and partial eclipse

OPERATIONS: Across two scripts and an outline today: that pleasant stage where I can just pick at them and build them in little pieces.
STATUS: Inbox 91. I really need to take an afternoon to clear it out properly.
READING: THE ORIGIN OF EMPIRE: ROME FROM THE REPUBLIC TO HADRIAN, David Potter (link)
LISTENING:

THINKING ABOUT:

it was recognised that each ‘good’ constitution had an opposite. The opposite of democracy was ochlocracy (mob rule); the opposite of aristocracy was oligarchy; and the opposite of kingship was tyranny. Plato, Aristotle and Polybius believed that constitutions change from good to bad in a regular cycle. Thus monarchy becomes tyranny, which gives way to aristocracy, which declines into oligarchy and gives rise to democracy; democracy declines into ochlocracy – a descent into pure savagery – and finally the cycle begins again with the rise of another monarchy.

From the Potter book above.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter. Now: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast. Forthcoming 2024: DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, FELL: FERAL CITY new printing. 2025: THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition