Posted on 10/24/2009 12:13:59 PM PDT by Benjamin Harrison
I was just teaching Plato's "The Republic" in school and a terrifying thought occurred to me
I think a simpler, and therefore more likely, explanation is that they think we are in the “dictatorship of the proletariat” stage, that is, the transition stage between capitalism and communism.
Now, your typical blue state voter lives in the city. Might have a criminal record. May not own a car. Scared of guns. No savings at all -- maybe no job. But, still, smart enough to vote for the Democrat ever time.
Face it: Democrats are just a superior kind of human. [/s]
Yes. And you are right to loath them for it.
The answer to your question is “YES”.
The bad news is these restraints are being dispensed with daily and there is little rising up of the people in a consistent, goal oriented way in which to put a stop to this take over. Thus the forefather's placed restraints seem not to be taught nor matter or be effective anymore.
There will always be the push for complete power take over. But if obstacles are in place to stop it (which is what the United States has had) it is not as concerning. Now however this ram rod ding through and the dispense of our stops is the concerning part.
You are correct about the liberals seeing themselves as philosopher-kings. There is a coalition of academics and media elite such as NYT reporters and editorialists that want to run things through the Democratic party. One example is “climate change”. They think that science has proven we must limit carbon emissions, so any opposition to cap-and-trade must be “cynical”, to use a word Obama has used recently.
And Nancy and Harry are idiots.
An old medieval saying was that power revealed the true person...they got power, and look what it’s showing....
Thank you...I was telling my students that the founding fathers set up a wonderful system where democracy and a republic could succeed because they believed that masses would not be ignorant like Plato argued. A system where everyone could work hard, study, and be the master of their own destiny. Individual merit would replace blind ignorance to “authority”. I tell my students if Plato was right then we must believe that everyone can be a philosopher king...I lead it into a lecture on why it is important to not become the “masses”, reading about Congress, studying a candidate and issues before you vote, etc
I think the Philosopher-King complex explains much of the liberal mentality. For example, it’s gospel for them to think of conservatives as knuckle-draggers. But there’s more to it than that. For some liberal leaders, it’s all about power. When Rham Emanual mails a dead fish to a pollster or repeatly stabs a knife into a table and yells “Dead” about party defectors, he is not thinking about the peoples’ problems. People like him are megalomaniacs not unlike Hitler or Stalin. Fortunately for us, many megalomaniacs overreach and defeat themselves. Think Napolean in Russia. The downside is that the downfall of the megalomaniac is aften accompanied by piles of dead bodies.
but that is my fear...I am fighting against a gov’t induced mentality that encourages them not to think for themselves, accept hand-outs, etc. The left is trying to turn them into “the masses”
Well, yes, they do think they are smarter than us and that they know better. Isn’t that obvious? The great thing is that we have a third entity between elites and those who are only interested in plodding along, and that is a fiery conservative bunch of wonderfully educated and thoughtful folks + a great military who have joined, 75%, for very good reasons + a great FBI, etc. who have sworn to uphold the Constitution from foreign and domestic enemies + homeschoolers + Talk Radio + a wonderfully Free (internet) Press. Plus a great Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution that we, the above, will not let go without a fight.
Plus, we are a Republic and NOT a democracy of the masses, regardless of Hilary’s endless tries to get rid of the Electoral College so ‘everybody can vote.’
In your dreams, libbies. Molon Labe.
You can probably find something similar in Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies. Plato, though, was a lot bigger than all this. Some say the Republic is actually a defense of philosophy, rather than a blueprint for governance.
Plato also talks about the Warriors, who are designed as a 2nd class to make sure the Kings do not abuse the people. Maybe the constitution and a vigilant citizenship are that warrior class.
I’ll have to look at that...thank you
First, the description of liberals and how they behave is accurate. The more interesting question is why do they behave that way? I believe the answer to that question is because they are God players, ceaselessly in rebellion against God because they would be God. If you accept that premise everything laid out in the description fits.
Second, on a more prosaic level, democracies are not very good at making the right decisions. But we are really good at correcting bad decisions before they wreck the country. Totalitarian regimes, like the Soviet Union, are often incapable of changing course to avoid piling up on the rocks. So, after 70 years, the accumulated mistakes of the Soviet Union brought it down. It could not cope with Ronald Reagan's challenge because the entire structure was built on mistake after mistake which could never be cured. That is why the Soviet Union had 70 years of "bad harvests." That is why the Polish people joked, "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." The system had to go on pretending.
Democracies on the other hand govern much by looking through the rearview mirror. And we correct course by throwing the rascals who then tack the ship of state in a slightly different direction until that direction nearly runs us onto the shoals, whereupon we throw those rascals out and change course again. So the ship of state in a democracy is never perfectly trimmed but it is generally navigated away from the shoals.
The God Players want the ship of state to be perfect, they want it to be sailed in a perfect way. A way which only they have the skill and experience to accomplish. This explains exactly why Democrats perennially find it necessary to call Republican candidates stupid. If one is so arrogant as to want to play God, it is highly unlikely that he will find the ability to admit and correct mistakes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.