Tab. ITutela Civium, sive Pars Quinta Praescripta. Tabula Actis Mundi more veterum picta (a machina).The Guardianship of Citizens, or The Fifth Part Prescribed. Painted for Acta Mundi in the classical manner (AI-generated).
Epistulae Matris · De quinta parte audiendiA Mother's Letters · On the Fifth Part of Hearing
Tutela pupillorum est, non civium
Guardianship Is for Wards, Not Citizens
Commissio civitatum Germaniae, ut Brussels Signal et Remix News narrant, proposuit ut fora electronica quintam quamque rem lectoribus propositam ex auctoribus a magistratibus probatis sumant. Cornelia filio scribit: qui civem adultum tamquam pupillum regit, eum non educat, sed in tutela retinet.
The broadcasting commission of the German states, as Brussels Signal and Remix News report, has proposed that online platforms draw one in every five items shown to their readers from outlets approved by the authorities. Cornelia writes to her son: whoever governs a grown citizen as a ward does not educate him; she keeps him in tutelage.
Cur hoc legimusWhy we read this Quia civitas quae sermonem civium metitur et praescribit, liberos viros in clientelam publicam redigit.Because a state that measures and prescribes the speech of citizens reduces free men into public dependency.
Cornelia filio suo salutem. Romae, die Saturni, ante diem IX Kalendas Novembres, anno urbis conditae MMDCCLXXIX.
Cornelia to her son, greetings. Rome, Saturday, the ninth day before the Kalends of November, in the 2779th year from the founding of the City.
Quaeris ex me, mi fili, quid de Germanis sentiam. Rem prius audi. Commissio rerum divulgandarum, in qua sedecim civitatum Germaniae magistratus consulunt, mense Septembri exeunte exemplar foederis de rebus per interrete divulgandis edidit, de quo usque ad tertium decimum diem Novembris sententiam dicere licet. Ut Brussels Signal et Remix News narrant, quicumque in retibus socialibus machinis lectori proponunt quid legat, ex quinque rebus propositis saltem unam ex numero auctorum probatorum sumere iubebuntur, qui varietatem sententiarum fovere censentur. In hunc numerum ARD, ZDF, Deutschlandradio, nuntii publici, fere sua sponte recipientur; privati a quattuordecim praefecturis rerum divulgandarum petere debebunt, quae iudicabunt.
You ask me, my son, what I think of the Germans. Hear the matter first. The broadcasting commission, in which the governments of Germany's sixteen states take counsel together, published at the end of September a draft treaty on media distributed through the internet, on which comment may be submitted until the thirteenth of November. As Brussels Signal and Remix News report, whoever on social media uses machines to set before the reader what he shall read will be required to take at least one item in five from a pool of approved outlets, deemed to foster a diversity of opinion. Into this pool the public broadcasters, ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio, will be admitted almost of course; private outlets will have to apply to the fourteen state media authorities, who will decide.
Brussels Signal addit nonnullos privatos, RTL, n-tv, Welt, ProSieben, iam eo honore frui; collegium ver.di consilium probare, poenas tamen nimis lenes queri; auctores quintam partem ex proportione praeconiorum ducere, neque rationem reddere cur ea pars varietatem afferat, neque cavere ut quidquam propositum sententiam lectori novam praebeat. Neque rem ratam fore nisi omnes sedecim civitates consenserint. Remix News memorat nuntios publicos octo miliardis et dimidio euronummorum quotannis ex pecunia coacta ali.
Brussels Signal adds that several private outlets, RTL, n-tv, Welt and ProSieben, already enjoy that honour; that the union ver.di approves the plan but complains the penalties are too mild; that the drafters derive the fifth part from the share of advertising, yet give no reason why that share should bring diversity, and make no provision that anything promoted should offer the reader a view new to him. Nor will the measure take effect unless all sixteen states agree. Remix News recalls that the public broadcasters are fed each year on eight and a half billion euros of compulsory money.
Audi nunc matrem. Cum tu puer esses, ego ipsa magistros domum adduxi, Diophanem et Blossium, et quid audires elegi. Ius erat; nam pupillus eras. At ubi togam virilem sumpsisti, eligere desii et suadere coepi. Mater quae filio iam viro quintam partem eorum quae audit praescribit non educat, sed in tutela retinet. Graeci, ut DW nuntiat, pueros quindecim annis minores ab his foris arcere statuerunt: id tutela est, et recte pueris adhibetur. Germani contra cives adultos, qui suffragia ferunt, tamquam pupillos tractant.
Now hear your mother. When you were a boy, I myself brought teachers into the house, Diophanes and Blossius, and chose what you should hear. That was my right, for you were a ward. But when you put on the toga of manhood, I stopped choosing and began persuading. A mother who prescribes a fifth of what her grown son hears does not educate him; she keeps him in tutelage. The Greeks, as DW reports, have resolved to keep children under fifteen off these forums: that is guardianship, and rightly applied to children. The Germans, on the other hand, treat grown citizens, who cast their votes, as wards.
Mater quae filio iam viro quintam partem eorum quae audit praescribit non educat, sed in tutela retinet.
A mother who prescribes a fifth of what her grown son hears does not educate him; she keeps him in tutelage.
Concedo, mi fili, fora illa iam nunc machinis alienorum hominum regi, neque eas varietati servire. Sed qui dominum mutat, liber non fit. Quando autem varietas vocari potest, quam ii scribunt qui ex eodem aerario aluntur? Ecquando desinet idem esse qui iudicat atque qui petit et accipit? Quae pausa erit, si hodie quinta pars, cras tertia praescribetur? Cui bono sit, ipse vides: nuntiis publicis, qui sine petitione intrant, et praefecturis, quae ianuam tenent.
I grant you, my son, that those forums are already ruled by the machines of other men, and that those machines do not serve diversity. But a man who changes masters is not made free. And when can it be called diversity, when it is written by those fed from the same treasury? When will the one who judges stop being the same as the one who applies and receives? Where will it end, if today a fifth is prescribed, and tomorrow a third? Who gains, you can see for yourself: the public broadcasters, who enter without applying, and the authorities, who keep the gate.
Hoc tibi dicam quod nemo diurnarius dicet. Civitas quae sermoni suo confidit eum non ingerit. Cum Campana mulier gemmas suas ostentaret, filios meos protuli: «haec ornamenta sunt mea». Non decreto, sed sermone matris formati erant. Ubi domus docere desiit, magistratus cogere incipit; et qui cogit, fatetur se persuadere non posse. Si cives iudicare nesciunt quid legant, ne suffragium quidem ferre sciunt; tum honestius esset eis suffragia adimere quam aures.
I will tell you what no journalist will. A commonwealth that trusts its own speech does not force it on anyone. When a Campanian lady was showing off her jewels, I brought out my sons: "These are my ornaments." They had been formed not by decree but by their mother's speech. Where the house stops teaching, the magistrate begins compelling; and he who compels confesses that he cannot persuade. If citizens cannot judge what to read, they cannot cast a vote either; then it would be more honest to take away their votes than their ears.
Remedium in promptu est. Sedecim curiae Germanorum hoc foedus repudient. Patres et matres liberos suos domi doceant, pueros tueantur, viros sibi relinquant. Tu vero, mi fili, quintam partem tuam ne cuiquam cedas: lege, audi, iudica ipse. Vale.
The remedy lies ready to hand. Let the sixteen parliaments of the Germans reject this treaty. Let fathers and mothers teach their children at home, protect the boys, and leave the men to themselves. And you, my son, yield your fifth part to no one: read, listen, judge for yourself. Farewell.
FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES
- Val. Max. 4.4 pr.haec ornamenta sunt mea
FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES
- Remix NewsGermany plans to force social media platforms to fill 20% of algorithmic recommendations with ‘state-approved’ content
- DWGreece joins countries putting age-limits on social media, banning access for kids under 15
- Brussels SignalGermany weighs forcing social media to fill a fifth of recommendations with approved content
Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.
Scribe ad Cornelia: tabellarius epistulam tuam per vias Romanas feret, et responsum post dies aliquot redibit.Write to Cornelia: the courier carries your letter along the Roman roads, and a reply comes back after a few days.
LEGE ETIAMREAD NEXT
- Qui domum non regit, rem publicam non regetHe Who Cannot Rule His House Will Not Rule the RepublicCornelia
- Suffragium hereditas est, non praedaThe Vote Is an Inheritance, Not PlunderCornelia
- De commeatu aërio ex castris Mildenhall in Germaniam et Hispaniam translatoOn the air supply train moved from the camp at Mildenhall to Germany and SpainCaesar
- Ieiunium non est temperantiaFasting Is Not TemperanceFrontinus
- Harenam in thesaurum vertit ingenium; thesaurum unius hominis custodia tueturGenius turns sand into treasure; one man's keeping guards the treasurePliny the Elder
