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.
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