Friday rant

 

Cylon of Croton demanding a democratic constitution
from the Pythagoreans.
Weird AI fantasy picture!

Why should we believe that philosophers have discovered something terribly important? You know, some "lofty ideals"...or was it "ideas"? Or "Ideas", perhaps?

Take Plato, for instance. Is this the same Plato whose "Republic" simply superimposes an idealized Sparta onto the Athenian social structure? The same Plato whose "Laws" were probably based on real Cretan oligarchic city-states? The same Plato who tried to "educate" two consecutive tyrants of Syracuse? The Plato whose teacher Socrates was executed by the democrats of Athens for his pesky "questioning" (a.k.a. sedition)? *That* Plato?

Why should we take anything he ever wrote about the World of Forms seriously? This ilk of the pro-Spartan Athenian oligarchy. Oh, and to those who say that Plato wrote "dialogues about Love"...ahem, no, he wrote dialogues about pederasty. Or rather about how to transmute homo-eroticism into a mystical quest for the Divine. I mean it´s almost as if he wrote "Symposium" in a very definite social context or something...

Are all ideas simply products of their social, political and economic surroundings? Perhaps not, but it takes a genius to transcend the Zeitgeist. And nobody listens to intellectuals anyway. Certainly not if their ideas *aren´t* in tune with the Zeitgeist. So most philosophies will certainly be products of their socio-economic surroundings. I mean, why should we expect otherwise? And if they are not, they will equally certainly remain completely marginal. Even in academe. 

And that´s that. But of course the intellectuals (to whom philosophers belong) always overestimate their importance. "The pen is mightier than the sword". No, it isn´t. It literally isn´t. Wanna bet? "The poets make history". Yeah, Friedrich Schiller - rather than Napoleon - made history, right? "Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people." LOL. No, strong mind discusses events and then mobilizes those with "average" minds (who discuss people). The truly weak minds are the intellectuals, the airheads, who "discuss ideas" whatever that even means - at a Paris café, perchance? 

The real movers and shakers of history are the great statesmen, the captains of industry, the brilliant scientists, the strong generals, the women who scheme in the background...and the heroes of the common people providing muscle. Perhaps the prophets, too? Where are the philosophes, pray tell me? 

It´s a conflict as old as sunshine. The people want debt relief, land redistribution, a democratic constitution even. The Pythagoreans want to "discuss ideas" while acting like an overbearing oligarchy. So Cylon stormed their meeting-hall. Cylon did nothing wrong...and it will all happen again.