I hope he's right! If a british pedophile cuckold hates Trump, then Trump must be doing something right!
America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny
As this dystopian election campaign has unfolded, my mind keeps being tugged by a passage in Plato's Republic.
It has unsettled - even surprised - me from the moment I first read it
in graduate school. The passage is from the part of the dialogue where
Socrates and his friends are talking about the nature of different
political systems, how they change over time, and how one can slowly
evolve into another. And Socrates seemed pretty clear on one sobering
point: that "tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than
democracy." What did Plato mean by that? Democracy, for him, I
discovered, was a political system of maximal freedom and equality,
where every lifestyle is allowed and public offices are filled by a
lottery. And the longer a democracy lasted, Plato argued, the more
democratic it would become. Its freedoms would multiply; its equality
spread. Deference to any sort of authority would wither; tolerance of
any kind of inequality would come under intense threat; and
multiculturalism and sexual freedom would create a city or a country
like "a many-colored cloak decorated in all hues."This
rainbow-flag polity, Plato argues, is, for many people, the fairest of
regimes. The freedom in that democracy has to be experienced to be
believed - with shame and privilege in particular emerging over time as
anathema. But it is inherently unstable. As the authority of elites
fades, as Establishment values cede to popular ones, views and
identities can become so magnificently diverse as to be mutually
uncomprehending. And when all the barriers to equality, formal and
informal, have been removed; when everyone is equal; when elites are
despised and full license is established to do "whatever one wants," you
arrive at what might be called late-stage democracy. There is no
kowtowing to authority here, let alone to political experience or
expertise.
The
very rich come under attack, as inequality becomes increasingly
intolerable. Patriarchy is also dismantled: "We almost forgot to mention
the extent of the law of equality and of freedom in the relations of
women with men and men with women." Family hierarchies are inverted: "A
father habituates himself to be like his child and fear his sons, and a
son habituates himself to be like his father and to have no shame before
or fear of his parents." In classrooms, "as the teacher ... is
frightened of the pupils and fawns on them, so the students make light
of their teachers." Animals are regarded as equal to humans; the rich
mingle freely with the poor in the streets and try to blend in. The
foreigner is equal to the citizen.
And it is when a democracy has ripened as fully as this, Plato argues, that a would-be tyrant will often seize his moment.
He
is usually of the elite but has a nature in tune with the time - given
over to random pleasures and whims, feasting on plenty of food and sex,
and reveling in the nonjudgment that is democracy's civil religion. He
makes his move by "taking over a particularly obedient mob" and
attacking his wealthy peers as corrupt. If not stopped quickly, his
appetite for attacking the rich on behalf of the people swells further.
He is a traitor to his class - and soon, his elite enemies, shorn of
popular legitimacy, find a way to appease him or are forced to flee.
Eventually, he stands alone, promising to cut through the paralysis of
democratic incoherence. It's as if he were offering the addled,
distracted, and self-indulgent citizens a kind of relief from
democracy's endless choices and insecurities. He rides a backlash to
excess-"too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much
slavery" - and offers himself as the personified answer to the internal
conflicts of the democratic mess. He pledges, above all, to take on the
increasingly despised elites. And as the people thrill to him as a kind
of solution, a democracy willingly, even impetuously, repeals itself.
And
so, as I chitchatted over cocktails at a Washington office Christmas
party in December, and saw, looming above our heads, the pulsating,
angry televised face of Donald Trump on Fox News, I couldn't help but
feel a little nausea permeate my stomach. And as I watched frenzied
Trump rallies on C-SPAN in the spring, and saw him lay waste to far more
qualified political peers in the debates by simply calling them names,
the nausea turned to dread. And when he seemed to condone physical
violence as a response to political disagreeme
I hope he's right! If a british pedophile cuckold hates Trump, then Trump must be doing something right!
America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny
As this dystopian election campaign has unfolded, my mind keeps being tugged by a passage in Plato's Republic.
It has unsettled - even surprised - me from the moment I first read it
in graduate school. The passage is from the part of the dialogue where
Socrates and his friends are talking about the nature of different
political systems, how they change over time, and how one can slowly
evolve into another. And Socrates seemed pretty clear on one sobering
point: that "tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than
democracy." What did Plato mean by that? Democracy, for him, I
discovered, was a political system of maximal freedom and equality,
where every lifestyle is allowed and public offices are filled by a
lottery. And the longer a democracy lasted, Plato argued, the more
democratic it would become. Its freedoms would multiply; its equality
spread. Deference to any sort of authority would wither; tolerance of
any kind of inequality would come under intense threat; and
multiculturalism and sexual freedom would create a city or a country
like "a many-colored cloak decorated in all hues."This
rainbow-flag polity, Plato argues, is, for many people, the fairest of
regimes. The freedom in that democracy has to be experienced to be
believed - with shame and privilege in particular emerging over time as
anathema. But it is inherently unstable. As the authority of elites
fades, as Establishment values cede to popular ones, views and
identities can become so magnificently diverse as to be mutually
uncomprehending. And when all the barriers to equality, formal and
informal, have been removed; when everyone is equal; when elites are
despised and full license is established to do "whatever one wants," you
arrive at what might be called late-stage democracy. There is no
kowtowing to authority here, let alone to political experience or
expertise.
The
very rich come under attack, as inequality becomes increasingly
intolerable. Patriarchy is also dismantled: "We almost forgot to mention
the extent of the law of equality and of freedom in the relations of
women with men and men with women." Family hierarchies are inverted: "A
father habituates himself to be like his child and fear his sons, and a
son habituates himself to be like his father and to have no shame before
or fear of his parents." In classrooms, "as the teacher ... is
frightened of the pupils and fawns on them, so the students make light
of their teachers." Animals are regarded as equal to humans; the rich
mingle freely with the poor in the streets and try to blend in. The
foreigner is equal to the citizen.
And it is when a democracy has ripened as fully as this, Plato argues, that a would-be tyrant will often seize his moment.
He
is usually of the elite but has a nature in tune with the time - given
over to random pleasures and whims, feasting on plenty of food and sex,
and reveling in the nonjudgment that is democracy's civil religion. He
makes his move by "taking over a particularly obedient mob" and
attacking his wealthy peers as corrupt. If not stopped quickly, his
appetite for attacking the rich on behalf of the people swells further.
He is a traitor to his class - and soon, his elite enemies, shorn of
popular legitimacy, find a way to appease him or are forced to flee.
Eventually, he stands alone, promising to cut through the paralysis of
democratic incoherence. It's as if he were offering the addled,
distracted, and self-indulgent citizens a kind of relief from
democracy's endless choices and insecurities. He rides a backlash to
excess-"too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much
slavery" - and offers himself as the personified answer to the internal
conflicts of the democratic mess. He pledges, above all, to take on the
increasingly despised elites. And as the people thrill to him as a kind
of solution, a democracy willingly, even impetuously, repeals itself.
And
so, as I chitchatted over cocktails at a Washington office Christmas
party in December, and saw, looming above our heads, the pulsating,
angry televised face of Donald Trump on Fox News, I couldn't help but
feel a little nausea permeate my stomach. And as I watched frenzied
Trump rallies on C-SPAN in the spring, and saw him lay waste to far more
qualified political peers in the debates by simply calling them names,
the nausea turned to dread. And when he seemed to condone physical
violence as a response to political disagreeme