Plato on Democracy

Plato's Republic, book 8, on rule by the people. @PhiloofAlexandria

[michaelk]

Wow, how accurate he was. Totally applicable to the modern USA.

[creeperrobot]

It's insane how closely his ideas match our current society.

[kimberlywong]

Thank you for explaining this so succinctly! I'm using this for a class I'm teaching on the History of Social thought and you explain this far better than I ever could! Sadly, it parallels our current and ongoing political environment.

[dillpickle]

This seems to be spot on to exactly right now .

[mlokosss]

I admire your efficiency in this video, you've managed to condense so many important points into a 15 min talk, chapeau bas

[TheDeciderGod]

This is what is happening right now in almost all modern democratic nations. The decay into tyranny that is.

[kieferonline]

Excellent explanation of Plato here. Plato's observations from ancient Greece were so prescient. On the lack of moral discrimination and inappropriate applications of equality, it's as if Plato had visions of 21st century California!

[maheshsoni]

very nicely argued...I think it's the erosion of the moral values of society which causes the failure of democracy. Power under Democracy depends on numerical strength and not on the morals or virtues of society.

[rilindshehu]

It baffles me how few people are able to really question and reconsider today's political systems and societal values. They take them as eternal law and as the best thing that has ever happened in history. Our entire society is completely brainwashed with liberalism, and it's going to hit us in the head like a boomerang.

[nephiindustries]

Such a strong explanation here, from the best of the best!

[ahsann]

Sir, I watch and admire all of your videos. I have a suggestion/request: kindly, provide a suggested reading/chapter/article on the given topic in your description just like the professors do in classes. That would be great.

[Lambert]

timely information - I had largely forgotten what plato said, being a youth at the time...thanks

[thomasjamison]

Yes, indeed. Something to think about when you go out in the backyard to sit on your three holer.

[rosesprog]

Indeed, democracy was tried once in ancient Greece for about 200 years and it failed miserably. The use of that word today, mostly during electoral campaigns, is meant to give the general population the illusion of decisional power over the representatives they think they elect to supposedly take care of their rights but who, while pretending to promote freedom and democracy all over the world, in fact protect the rights of the legal persons that corporations found a way to morph into and, using their huge financial acquisitions, now fund through laws they have taken complete control of through lobbying and other crooked corrupt means.
In other words, if anyone uses the word democracy to describe the system we are living in today, there is a good chance that that person is a crook, a liar or someone who has no idea what he/she's talking about, there is no such thing as democracy in this world, it wouldn't work, even representative democracy is a misnomer. The US was founded as a republic, it failed, it is now a profitocracy! : )

[warrenshafer]

What is Liberty without Virtue. The worst possible of Evils. Madness without Restraint. Edmund Burke

[ZhangLee.]

wow almost everything plato had said actually what happen to almost all western country

[ike]

On a surface level it seems very accurate. But Platos thesis suffers from only having a surface level analysis of why these things are bad in the first place. For example, foreigners being treated the same as citizens. If they are both willing to contribute and improve the society, why should they be treated unequally? Alot of his takes on democracy don’t hold up to the modern sciences and understandings of how alot of these things actually happen as we’ve changed our society. Still, super interesting to think about and take into account when discussing where to take society from here.

[TERRANOVAofficial]

the presentation of conclusions and personal views dressed in patchwork plato and the actual book 8 are 2 very different stories

[nathanschab]

The Trial of Socrates by I.F. Stone is a good read for anyone interested in the subject here.

[lyric]

"...democracy tends to evolve out of an oligarchy..." They become more self- indulgent and less worthy of honor. Yes, King George and now Joe "Boughten".