Estrategias de control para UPS: controladores resonantes

A problem of outstanding importance to modernity is the question: What are the means of survival and what are the resources of our big city populations? We are accustomed to consider ancient Rome as a model that furnishes us, by analogy, certain concepts and insights which throw some light upon our own situation. Not by accident did historians of the nineteenth century devote profound attention to Roman history. Mommsen, sworn enemy of all vestiges of feudalism, defined for us the significance of Roman history with that assurance that is the mark of a first-class historian. He fixed the point where the present establishes contact with the past. For the past can never be considered an independent dimension per se; it must be conceived as a dimension of time wherein the concrete present is a codeterminant. The path that the study of Roman history has followed since Mommsen also shows the immediate significance for us of this history. That significance does not lie in the early days, the history of the City proper, and so Mommsen rightly touched upon them only briefly and reticently. The significance is found in the later Rome, the Rome that had become the capital of the Empire. It is the Rome of Catiline, Caesar, and Pompey, the Rome of the Empire, that arouses our interest.

When we look at the human masses which thronged the city, we find that their situation was very different from that of the masses today. The religious, political, social differences are so great that we might speak of a different world. The technical organization of Imperial Rome cannot be compared to ours. But one fact emerges clearly as we view this promiscuous mass of freeborn, freedmen, and slaves that tumultuously swarmed the markets and streets; they flocked around the wealthy politicians and with the same enthusiasm flocked to the circus to witness the gladiators and wild beasts. On one side, we find this mass becoming ever more thoroughly parasitic, while on the other, we observe its increasing agility and mobility. The system of exploiting the provinces, a system leading to the devastation of once blooming regions; the colossal profiteering of officials and leaseholders; the mad luxuries in which the rich of that day indulged – all this presupposes the mass, the tremendous city population that wants to be

fed and amused.

But obviously it would be an oversimplification to think of this mass solely as drones in a beehive, as good-for-nothing loafers. Rome was a city, not only replete with the most magnificent structural planning, but, like all great cities, also full of hardworking artisans and laborers. It was not only the scene of excesses; it was also ever a place of prodigious work. It housed not only men who were on the lists for free grain distribution, and who received numbered tokens for free circus seats; it also harbored a vast number of busy breadwinners in every walk of life. What we must conclude from this state of affairs is that a prodigious amount of hard work and industrious pursuits can easily exist within a world which – like Rome – was slowly draining its dominions.

Let us consider next the state of dependency into which this mass had fallen. Characteristically the proletarian mass is always produced by artificial means, that is, by an influx from outside. In connection with this artificiality stands the historical fact that the capacity for, and with it the right to, political self-determination was gradually lost by the Romans. As long as Rome was a rural township, its citizenry was able to sustain itself. But when the city became the capital of an empire, that capacity was lost. Now the populace had to be fed largely by imports, and providing for it became a constant, relentless burden. The city's appetite was ravenous. For its satisfaction the old empire no longer sufficed; new provinces had to be conquered.

It seems that in the formation of a world empire the destruction of the free farmer is an inevitable step. For only after the farmer – earthbound, immobile, and opposed to change – has been eliminated, do the political ideas assume that space-devouring strength that may truly be called imperial. Imperialism and formation of the masses go hand in hand. The masses not only give to imperialism the power to absorb space, they sharpen the hunger of imperialism and make it capable of digesting the fruits of its power. Rome as one town amongst other towns in Latium is one thing. Rome as the first city of Italy already is something else. And this second Rome which defeated Carthage is again quite different from Imperial Rome. We

witness here the gradual self-destruction of the antique city, the polis, and its transformation into a capital and center of worldwide power. Colossal sacrifices of Roman racial substance were necessary for this development. Time and again the old, strict Roman society tried to halt this course with passionate effort, but in vain. The constant sacrifice borne by the Roman people – they alone were the justification of Rome's imperial power, and at the same time the basis of its enduring quality. They are what distinguishes Rome from the crew of a pirate vessel, from an enterprise aimed exclusively at loot and booty.

But we have only a one-sided idea of power if we overlook the fact that power always overpowers the victor as well as the vanquished. For the conqueror invariably is conquered in turn by his very conquests. That is why, in the example of Rome, we observe the peoples of Asia, Africa, and all the parts of the Empire flocking to Rome. First they arrive as exhibits of Roman victories, chained and under the yoke. But in the end we find the scions of the conquered as praetors, consuls, and Caesars. The artificial accumulation of city masses goes along with this development and reaches its climax under the Caesars. The structure of these masses shows that the native-born Roman element now forms only a declining minority. In this Latinized and Hellenized populace, the visible traces of old Rome are completely lost. The metropolis devours its own children. It no longer regenerates itself from itself; it has to draw on the human reserves of the Empire, attracting the best minds from everywhere and absorbing always new masses of slaves. At the end of this decline, we find those catastrophes that dry up the artificial influx of new masses, which depopulate the city, and render it insignificant.

XXXIII - THE MECHANICAL STERILITY OF