We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing. - Gore Vidal

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

Constantine was never a true Galilean; he merely used Christianity to extend his dominion over the world. He was a shrewd professional soldier, badly educated and not in the least interested in philosophy, though some perverse taste in him was hugely satisfied by doctrinal disputes; the mad haggling of bishops fascinated him.

You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?