Andre Hartslief
Ex Unitate Vires, is not a virus, it is a Latin phrase formerly used as the national motto of South Africa. It was translated as “Unity is Strength” and could be the one thing that saves mankind.
“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
~ Gaius Petronius(c.27-66 AD) Roman Satirist
The above quote is a great sentiment… but it is not by Petronious. It was a false attribution and was key to the depth of its satire. It has since been quoted by many scholars as legitimate but has only added to its power as a label of inefficiency. Exhaustive research can find no reference to it prior to the post WW2 period. It is reputed to have been found as a barrack dormitory noticeboard comment in a British military base in West Germany.
It is no doubt a Classical Scholar, foot soldier, who found it compelling to anonymously criticize the inadequacies of army management at the time and has undoubtedly earned it’s right of passage into our present day society, where it seems, the more certain individuals in the world, try to unite or to form into functional teams, to minimize the effects of the Corona virus, other individuals for whatever other egocentric reasons, are attempting to “reorganize”. And I will re-quote:” I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
P.S. On the orders of Nero in 66AD (CE for the politically correct) the Roman, Gaius Petronius died at his own hand- Some quotes of this have him as a General, Roman or Greek. He was Rome’s greatest Satirist.
