The Platonic Polity as the remedy to the "revolt of the masses"

Essay from the year 2023 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the Ancient World, , language: English, abstract: The "Revolt of the Masses" commenced long before the twentieth century. And the only remedy to the ochlocratic/plutocratic democracy of our days is the implementation of the Platonic Polity. For unless "wisdom joins the political power", as the great Athenian philosopher has explained, the suffering of the humankind will never end. Today, Plato's political philosophy is more relevant than ever. Our world is ruled by a more or less "occult government" marked by "nepotistic plutocracy" and the consequent flagrant corruption. And this government exercises power thanks to support provided to them by all sorts of real or imaginary oppressed. And their method is simple, very simple. There is a huge difference between the common man and the man who is able to think. Yet, in the framework of today's plutocratic democracy everyone, regardless of his origin, education and skills, is regarded as a human "truly having his mind at work" and accordingly entitled to have opinion on political matters. Usually, moreover, this very regime is labelled as "platonic", but it is not. As a matter of fact, it is a perversion of Platonism. For it recognizes the problems that plague humankind today (overpopulation, environmental pollution, etc), but tries to solve them in a wrong way. According to Plato, nepotism and plutocracy bring about the destruction of the State.

Auteur

Dimitris Michalopoulos was born in Athens, in 1952. After graduating from the Italian School of Athens (1970) and from the History and Archaeological Department of the University of Athens (1974), he obtained his Ph.D. in 1978, in Paris, at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. From 1982 to 1994 he taught Diplomatic History and Balkan Issues at the Law School of the University of Salonica (first as a lecturer and afterwards as an assistant professor); during the years 1989 - 1997 he taught Naval and European History at the Naval War College of Greece. During the years 1990-2000 he was the director of the Museum of the City of Athens and from 2004 to 2011 acting director to the "Historical Institute for Studies on Eleutherios Venizelos and his Era". Now he is academic advisor to the "Institute of Hellenic Maritime History", Piraeus.