Silly Little Country

Kennedy speech and The Life of Brian

I cannot let this one go.
Partway in he makes reference to the 'proudest claim' one could make in the past - 'civis Romanus sum'.
The modern left, transposed into that time, would no doubt scoff. A reaction documented brilliantly in 'The Life of Brian', leading to the wonderful 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' sequence, climaxing here:

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Attendee: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace - shut up!
Reg: There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all.
Dissenter: Uh, well, one.
Reg: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's one. But otherwise, we're solid.

Humour can have such value.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:09 PM