Deja Vu?

"The class struggles of the Roman Republic resulted in an unusual mixture of democracy and oligarchy. The word republic comes from the Latin res publica which literally translates to public business. Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (Comitia Tributa). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, the Roman Senate represented an oligarchic institution, which acted as an advisory body.^[3] In the Republic, the Senate held great authority (auctoritas), but no actual legislative power; it was technically only an advisory council. However, as the Senators were individually very influential, it was difficult to accomplish anything against the collective will of the Senate. "

-Wikipedia: The ancient Romans

It always astounds me how much we can learn from the past while we still insist to ourselves that modern times are unique and that this time it is different. Many people call this insanity as defined in the dictionary. I call it stupidity, shortsightedness, greed, and ignorance among other things.