That might be the fatal flaw of democracy--too easy to control and manipulate. As Netanyahu said, America is very easy to move. And the larger, the easier. Athens was a lot smaller than the EU (or US) and the suffrage was restricted, and even then their Golden Age ended in tyranny. But they did have a Golden Age that shines to this day.
When we read Plato in college, we read the Dialogues in roughly chronological order and I totally loved him at the beginning--rather, I loved Socrates--but, Plato was still under Socrates' direct influence and was in his 30s when Socrates drank the hemlock and died. Plato continued to write, leaving Socrates as his main character. As Plato gets older, Socrates changes and by the time of Plato's Republic, when Plato is an old man and Athens is descending into violence and turmoil, Socrates is for banishing poets and setting up a dictatorship of philosopher-kings and all sorts of reactionary stuff. I figured Plato had strayed from Socrates' influence and turned into a less admirable, fearful old man, so I cordoned Socrates off and left him on his pedestal and became somewhat dismissive of Plato.
Noooowwwwww, however... I've put some miles behind me and discovered that the shadows on the cave's wall really were shadows on the cave's wall after all and I was one of the people I thought I was observing from the mouth of the cave.
My own civilization is disintegrating, and I feel more charitable toward Plato and have been meaning to reread the Republic.
That might be the fatal flaw of democracy--too easy to control and manipulate. As Netanyahu said, America is very easy to move. And the larger, the easier. Athens was a lot smaller than the EU (or US) and the suffrage was restricted, and even then their Golden Age ended in tyranny. But they did have a Golden Age that shines to this day.
When we read Plato in college, we read the Dialogues in roughly chronological order and I totally loved him at the beginning--rather, I loved Socrates--but, Plato was still under Socrates' direct influence and was in his 30s when Socrates drank the hemlock and died. Plato continued to write, leaving Socrates as his main character. As Plato gets older, Socrates changes and by the time of Plato's Republic, when Plato is an old man and Athens is descending into violence and turmoil, Socrates is for banishing poets and setting up a dictatorship of philosopher-kings and all sorts of reactionary stuff. I figured Plato had strayed from Socrates' influence and turned into a less admirable, fearful old man, so I cordoned Socrates off and left him on his pedestal and became somewhat dismissive of Plato.
Noooowwwwww, however... I've put some miles behind me and discovered that the shadows on the cave's wall really were shadows on the cave's wall after all and I was one of the people I thought I was observing from the mouth of the cave.
My own civilization is disintegrating, and I feel more charitable toward Plato and have been meaning to reread the Republic.
Excellent! The first paragraph says it all.