Plato And Government

Wednesday Books Blog Report: Plato's Hot on the Web

"Apparently, classical Greece and its traditions of philosophy and democracy, are alive and well with Athens' citizens, although the state is still searching for Plato's philosopher-king," Foster writes . "While the politicians are knuckling under the economic realities of an EU-dominated political organization, complete with its dependency on the

Luboš Motl says the strikers should be fired . He posits that strikes can be a legitimate tool for employees to show "that their work is more important and valuable" than what their employer seems to think. However, he notes, "Only if the strikers bear some responsibility for their decisions and behavior and if they are at risk of losing advantages because of their decisions, strikes may turn out to be a tool that improves the life of the society."

He warns, "Once a nation enters the mode of thinking in which the employees are always right -- because the government and the employers who are in charge are just reflections of the same striking employees -- the nation is just destined to drop to the bottom of the sea. Glub glub glub. Such a nation is going to give ever greater advantages to the employees for ever smaller amount of work."

Motl, who lives in the Czech Republic, says there will be a strike in his country tomorrow and that public transportation systems "will be among the sectors that will make many consumers upset. Of course, the strike won't occur in as dramatic conditions as Greece, but it's still annoying."

Plato, who lived from circa 427 to circa 347 BC, was a great Greek thinker, mathematician, and author of "The Republic," one of the most influential books ever, which set out his vision of a utopia ruled by a philosopher-king. He was a student of Socrates, and founded the Academy in Athens.

"In the West, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by the works of Plato and Aristotle, was diffused throughout Europe and the Middle East" by Alexander's conquests in the 4th century BC, Ma'am Grace notes at her blog .

Here are some more quick hits on Plato in the books blogosphere today:

● Adam Kotsko aspires to read several of Plato's works in the original in future years.

● Nadette Ramirez, a 17-year-old student, writes , "I have to finish this post so I can start reading Plato's 'The Republic' before I go to sleep.

Dancing from Reality « We couldn't make this up…

Psy has the Conservapedia angle well covered and now he has “Jesus” to keep an eye on as well, so I will be looking for my own host of loonies to cover on this prestigious blog. To that ends I would like to introduce you to James I. Nienhuis.

Nienhuis, like our good friend Andrew Schlafly, has thrown off the shackles of enlightenment placed him by an Ivy-League education and found the truth in a book written between 2600 and 2400 years ago, by a group of intelligent and well educated people, at least compared to the goat-headers they governed. Why did they get to govern the goat-headers you may ask? God told them they had to , it was in the book he dictated to them. How do they know the book was dictated by God? It said so in the book that all the intelligent and educated people could read. There is a latter edition of this book produced by some of Alan’s friends and that is the one our friend Nienhuis reads, although he seems to rarely seems get passed the first chapter. holding them nearly (but not quite) to the same level of respect as the guide to goat-headers governance. Although more specifically, he enjoys Plato’s description of the ancient civilization of Atlantis. Now most people see Atlantis as an allegory used by Plato to discuss politics and the roles of government and power. Nienhuis sees it for what it “really” is, evidence for the flood.