El discurso imperial: de Roma a EEUU

Comparing is always a delicate art. "Comparisons are odious," the saying goes, and that is what at least those who are harmed by them think. But, on the other hand, comparing has been and continues to be the most common way of learning: finding similarities and differences between phenomena, between objects, between processes. Conceptualizing, categorizing, or evaluating are intellectual activities that rest directly on comparison. The study of history as a source of lessons for the present is but one more variant of this general principle. Except for the identical, everything is comparable. To decree the "incomparability" of something is always a symptom of the desire to shield some aspect of reality from scrutiny and to elevate it, above its historical nature, its causes and its explanations, to the unconditional and elusive category of myth. And immediately we must add: history does not repeat itself. No one bathes twice in the same river of events, so it is always advisable to beware of believing in exact replicas of two moments.