In 1930s Germany an edition of The Republic was printed with a swastika on the cover.
They really liked what he had to say about an ethnicly superior society where the government controlled all commerce and decided what children could be exposed to in school.
The really important part missing from the cartoon is that the philosopher kings were not allowed to own anything and all the wealth was to sit with workers. The idea is that those making decisions shouldn’t be in a position to personally benefit from it. It’s not a terrible idea
Not owning anything? Like Diogenes?
Well, no. Diogenes was a twat. Plato wasn’t expecting people to be idiots. His idea was that philosopher kings would have to live amongst the ordinary people of the state. They would be dependent on the good will of the governed.
Removed by mod
Damn, Plato was ripped
Fun fact, when he was losing in a debate, he interrupted his opponent by flexing
I like the attention to detail that they did Plato as a beefcake.
Fun fact this last panel is kinda wrong, Plato believed in Philosopher-kings/politicians who were the most educated, couldn’t even hold office until like 50 years old after 35+ educational years
Republican, to the core…
I’d vote for Diogenes, but I know he’d resent me for it
He’s right though. People are stupid and panderer dictaror wannabes continuously get what they want in democracies because people are too dumb to see whats happening
That is bullshit. He is not right.
I would love a source.
Well, this comic goes against what Plato wrote in the “Republic”. In it, Plato advocated for a city/country/polis which had three classes: the ruling class, the guardian class (military) and the ordinary folk. The ruling class would be made out of philosophers (multiple, so not just one or a few), but by “philosopher” it is meant someone who spent many decades studying philosophy since they were a child. I can’t remember the cut off age, but if someone were older than 13 or something like that, and they haven’t began their philosophical education (which, besides things we would traditionally consider philosophy, includes things like astronomy and mathematics), they weren’t eligible. So, by his own writing, Plato wouldn’t be fit for the ruling class.
Also, English didn’t even exist back then.
Anytime philosophers are arguing in a semi detailed way it’s prob existential comics
Thank you very much! Now to binge.
Hover-over text of ExistentialComics’ comic:
Some people have called Plato the first totalitarian thinker, but if you look at what Democracy is producing these days it’s hard to not think he had a bit of a point…
And text beneath comic:
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As for Plato, he criticized democracy heavily, claiming that it gave people too much freedom, and if anyone could be elected by the ignorant masses, it would be too possible for selfish people who only wanted power and wealth to get into power. Democracy, ironically, would inevitably lead to tyranny and demagogues. He thought a better system would be for the wisest, most virtuous, and most selfless people to govern society, which of course would be philosophers like himself. How this system was immune to corruption is a little unclear to me, but given what’s going on with democracies lately you can probably at least say he has some good points.
Greece had democracy too, and it ran into the exact same basket of problems we experience today.
Candidates would smear each other through rumor campaigns, foreigners would be scapegoated for domestic problems, religious organizations would lobby for special privileges by promising their constituents’ support during election season, wealthy men would bribe whomever won to guarantee them favorable treatment, and large portions of the population were disenfranchised in order to maintain a patriarchal nationalist system built on the back of slave labor.
Consequentially, people lost faith in democracy as a mechanism for selecting popular rulers and became increasingly enamored with the military as a source of domestic income, social advancement, and national pride. The Greek system ultimately failed in the face of oligarchy during the Peloponnesian Wars, reemerged in a reformed state for almost a century, and then collapsed entirely following the conquest of the Macedonians.
Plato’s idealism not withstanding, his criticism is worth reading because it demonstrates a repeated pattern of human behaviors that modern political groups can learn from and respond to.
I would vote for buff Plato. His abs have the ideal form.
He is a stacked Pluto
I honestly think the Framers of the US Constitution had the right idea: letting every idiot over the age of 18 vote was a bad idea.
Thing is if you take out the initial racism and sexism, you just get a government ran by landlords and real estate moguls… moreso than currently.
What I was getting at was people with no grip on reality shouldn’t be allowed to vote on who runs the country. Of course, doing that is just as hard as the other social/moral issues we have.
They say the brain is where our consciousness exists, what we actually are. But I think it’s suspicious that we only have the brain’s opinion on that.
I’ve got a gut feeling you might be mistaken.
Diogenes would have been a great king of the universe, specifically because he wouldn’t have wanted the part.
Casually laying out biblical punishment after insulting some hypocrisy or another. In want that God
Instead of fighting wars he’d just jack off on the other nation’s king
