In this Rising Tide Foundation lecture which blends a mix of geopolitics and philosophy, I was challenged to introduce the two opposing solutions to the One/Many problem of governance first developed by Plato through the character of his mentor Socrates 2400 years ago.
The question in its basic terms can be summarized the following way:
IF human society is capable of breaking free of the cyclical trappings of collapse which have characterized every attempt at human social order historically, then how must the need for rules, law and government relate to the yearnings of each individual unit of government (ie: the citizen) to be free?
Can this harmonization of apparent opposites such as freedom/law, change/no-change, duty/ pleasure only occur via a crushing of the spirit of freedom in order to force the masses to adapt to the will of the elite in order to maintain stability, stasis and order?
If this is not ideal, or even possible, then perhaps the terms of “freedom” and “pleasure” should be simply transformed into their opposites so that people will embrace or even fight to defend the shackles of their customs, rituals, and other immoral habits which give them the illusion of freedom without any of its substance.
These questions strike at the very heart of universal history and are treated at length by Plato in the course of his dialogues and especially his famous Republic which is evaluated in this presentation.
We additionally contrast Plato’s lessons and the geopolitical dynamics of Athens from the time of Solon to Plato with the disturbing “solution” currently being proposed to create a new global order of slaves following an arrogant blueprint laid out by Klaus Schwab and Yuval Harari of the World Economic Forum following a perverted interpretation of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Note: This class was originally intended to encapsulate three acts (featuring Plato, St Augustine and Thomas More). However, due to the breadth and scope of the topic, it was decided to split the one intended lesson into three presentations with a deep dive into the world of St Augustine followed by Thomas More to be treated over the coming weeks.
Supplementary reading:
Cynthia Chung’s How to Conquer Tyranny and Avoid Tragedy
Cynthia Chung’s Plato’s Fight Against the Cult of Apollo at Delphi and the Cult of Democracy
The collected works of Plato (including Republic, Gorgias and Protagoras referenced in this lecture)
Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , and Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow. He is author of the ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series and Clash of the Two Americas. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation .
guarding the guardians, pleeeease let it not be Kissinger (but we know better, unfortunately).
Very interesting talk, Matt. And yes, much too much for the time planned! (But hey.. I'm as bad if not very much worse..) One thing I would question, though. Your talk mentioned the 'mysteries' only very briefly, and then only in a context which seemed to suggest that the mysteries, which for Athens at least were essentially the Eleusinian, were merely some form of elitist indoctrination - my words, I accept. Seeing as we know so very little about them, I question this somewhat. Certainly attending the mysteries seems to have been something exclusive to the aristoi. But they did include both men and women - whereas the demos, the vehicle for democracy, did not. It suggests that there was something much deeper, much more in tune with the timeless truths of human existence and the spirit, involved within these mysteries. And it would, in my opinion, be devaluing and trivializing them if we were simply to reduce them to say, the initiation ceremonies of US college fraternities/sororities (which would seem to me at least - being a Brit - much more in line with some form of obligation inculcation ritual similar if not exactly the same as freemasonry). A closer look at the mysteries would suggest a rite of passage to provoke some gnostic experience of the true nature of reality... Socrates would have undergone them, of course.... The work of Dr Stephan Hoeller, who builds on some of the theories developed by R Gordon Wasson who suggests the mysteries involved psychodelics, is instructive in this respect. I would be interested to hear you views on this..