Occidens occidit: Matellae aureae (Thomas Morus et Solzhenitsyn)


"Nempe cum pecuniā non ūtantur ipsī(1), sed in eum seruent ēuentum, quī ut potest ūsū uenīre, ita fierī potest ut numquam incidat. interim aurum, argentumque—unde ea fit—sīc apud sē habent, ut ab nullō plūris aestimētur, quam rērum ipsārum nātūra merētur, quā quis nōn uidet quam longē infrā ferrum sunt! ut sine quō nōn hercule magis quam absque ignī atque aquā uīuere mortālēs queant, cum interim aurō, argentōque nullum ūsum, quō nōn facile careāmus, nātura tribuerit, nisi hominum stultitia pretium rāritātī fēcisset.

[...]

Hīs rēbus utī occurrant(2), excōgitāuēre quandam ratiōnem, ut reliquis ipsōrum institūtīs consentāneam, ita ab nostrīs—apud quōs aurum tantī fit, ac tam dīligenter conditur—longissimē abhorrentem, eōque nisi perītīs nōn crēdibilem. nam cum in fictilibus ē terrā uitrōque ēlegantissimīs quidem illīs, sed uīlibus tamen edant bibantque. ex aurō, atque argentō nōn in commūnibus aulīs modo, sed in prīuātīs etiam domibus, matellās(3) passim, ac sordidissima quaeque uāsa conficiunt. ad haec catēnās et crassās compedēs, quibus cohercent seruōs; iisdem ex metallīs operantur. postrēmō quōscumque aliquod crīmen infāmēs facit, ab hōrum auribus anulī dēpendent aureī, digitōs aurum cingit, aurea torquēs ambit collum, et caput dēnique aurō uincītur. ita omnibus cūrant modīs, uti apud sē aurum argentumque in ignōminiā sint, atque hōc pactō fit, ut haec metalla, quae cēterae gentēs nōn minus ferē dolenter ac uiscera sua distrahī patiuntur, apud Ūtopiensēs, sī semel omnia rēs postulāret efferrī, nēmo sibi iactūram unīus fēcisse assīs uiderētur".

(1) Id est, Ūtopiensēs.
(2) Ūtopiensibus enim cavendum est nē princeps ac senātus in suspiciōnem veniant metallīs pūblicīs in turres abstrūsīs turpiter fruī nēve metalla fabre excūsa ē cīvium manibus molestē āvellantur quando incideret occāsio. Quae occāsio est data cum pecūniam Ūtopiensēs mūtuam alī populō daturī sunt aut praesertim cum bellum gerendum est, ex eō quia in Ūtopiā mīlitēs externī immodicō stipendiō condūcī solent. 
(3) Vās in quod urīna redditur.


Alexander Isaī fīlius Solženicyn
Fragmentum ex ōrātiōne "A World Split Apart" habitā in Universitāte Hardvardiānā annō Dominī MCMDXXVIII

"Every citizen has been granted the desired freedom and material goods in such quantity and of such quality as to guarantee in theory the achievement of happiness -- in the morally inferior sense of the word which has come into being during those same decades. In the process, however, one psychological detail has been overlooked: the constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the struggle to attain them imprint many Western faces with worry and even depression, though it is customary to conceal such feelings. Active and tense competition fills all human thoughts without opening a way to free spiritual development".

Imago: https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost16/Morus/mor_u201.html

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