Yet another"covfefe"shot in the dark: Could he have meant the Greek poet"Cavafy"and his poem? Anon interprets that one… kinda positively.

Waiting for the Barbarians

"Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?

(How serious people’s faces have become.)

Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,

everyone going home lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come…"

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51294/waiting-for-the-barbarians

How many of our own luminaries were banking on the barbarians all along? Ready to hand over titles, power, the State itself, and then wash their hands of it. But somehow, the barbarians still haven't claimed their waiting prize…

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From a thread on Kenneth Clark re: civilization's enemies and, in contrast, civilization's requirements for flourishing:

https://twitter.com/thinkingwest/status/1776257746528096443