That's just one of Cord Jefferson's favorite pieces of
graffiti from the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. He uses the graffiti to
argue that claims of America's moral decline are greatly exaggerated:
The professional right has made a big business out of pretending
that TV and the rise of gay culture and rap music and dozens of other
things have contributed to the fall of a once greatly moral nation, all
the while seeming to forget that Thomas Jefferson is known to have
taken sexual advantage of his slaves and Benjamin Franklin is believed
by some to have been part of a drunken orgy club.
It may make you feel nice to pretend that the societies that gave rise
to the modern world were ones of pure honor and decency, but that’s
not reality. The world isn’t on a moral decline, because there was
never a time when the world was particularly morally superior. If we can
glean anything from the Pompeiian graffiti, it’s that even citizens of
history’s most immaculate and important civilizations liked their sex
and poop jokes.
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