Saturday, March 9, 2024

Trump and Socrates

Trump's political success illustrates why Socrates preached that democracy can't work. Socrates argued that ordinary people are too ignorant to elect competent leaders. 

For teaching authoritarianism to young people, Socrates was put on trial in Athens, a democracy. He faced a jury of 500 citizens. In the end he lost his case by a narrow margin. The verdict was that he could leave town or he could kill himself. 

So, in support of authoritarianism,  Socrates bumped himself off. By now you might be wondering how wise he really was. 

History describes worse forms of government than democracy. 

To be fair, I suspect Socrates lacked access to the big picture. He hadn't read much about the Bronze Age, other than one or two long poems about the Hittites and their allies. To him Troy was ancient history. 

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