Have we become too democratic? Has democracy run its course in this country? Are we about to enter an era of tyranny replacing democracy? Apparently many thinkers, including Plato, have suggested that democracy is not everlasting and usually ends in tyranny. In the era of Trump it seems some of those predictions seem clairvoyant, according to the author. I am copying this article from a recent New York Magazine.
Shoeb
As this dystopian election campaign has unfolded, my mind keeps being tugged by a passage in Plato’s Republic. It has unsettled — even surprised — me from the moment I first read it in graduate school. The passage is from the part of the dialogue where Socrates and his friends are talking about the nature of different political systems, how they change over time, and how one can slowly evolve into another. And Socrates seemed pretty clear on one sobering point: that “tyranny is probably established out of no other regime than democracy.” What did Plato mean by that? Democracy, for him, I discovered, was a political system of maximal freedom and equality, where every lifestyle is allowed and public offices are filled by a lottery. And the longer a democracy lasted, Plato argued, the more democratic it would become. Its freedoms would multiply; its equality spread. Deference to any sort of authority would wither; tolerance of any kind of inequality would come under intense threat; and multiculturalism and sexual freedom would create a city or a country like “a many-colored cloak decorated in all hues.”
Click below for the rest of the article
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html
It is a great article. The Republican party has been undermining the democracy for decades by gerrymandering, using classic bait and switch by exploiting social issues to get votes and then switch to adopt economic policies to benefit rich while undermining the economic interests of the of the very base who elected them.
The genius of Trump is that he exploited the economic plight of the white base and hijacked the party right under the nose of the Republican Establishment in day light without spending a dime;and using free media. He loaned money to his campaign and will get it back in general election donations.
General election may turn out to be a different story. The Republican Primary was based on White votes, while in general elections the minorities has a lot of say which trump has alienated. Obama lost the White vote, but won on the base of minority vote.
The very minority that dilutes the democracy, may turn out be its savior and might stop Mr. Trump entering the White house. The election of first Muslim mayor of London is an encouraging sign, especially for Muslims.
Fayyaz