July 22, 2016

What Socrates had to say about Donald Trump

Intercept

Tyranny, says Socrates in The Republic, is actually “an outgrowth of democracy.” And would-be tyrants always in every instance claim to be shielding regular people from terrible danger: “This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector.”

As The Republic explains, leaders like this inevitably end up “standing up in the chariot of State with the reins in his hand, no longer protector, but tyrant absolute.” This is how liberty “passes into the harshest and bitterest form of slavery.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

...and what of the tyranny of Wall Street? The TPP? Globalism? PC killing free speech - on campuses all across the country where precious student snowflakes can't even handle to hear an opposing point of view? How can that not breed authoritarianism?

We have been living in a false choice duopoly of both parties backed by the financial elite for the last 30 years. A "soft tyranny" of falling wages, rising despair, and a gradual slide into dystopia for the 99%.

I will take a fighter willing take on that duopoly...warts and all.