http://www.jackzen.com/2007/08/02/rethinking-democracy/ ...........................just noticing Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:58:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 http://www.jackzen.com/2007/08/02/rethinking-democracy/#comment-8054 Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:41:14 +0000 http://www.jackzen.com/2007/08/02/rethinking-democracy/#comment-8054 It seems about 2400 years ago a fellow by the name of Plato came to a similar conclusion. He put it down in an essay called "The Republic" where he envisioned a "perfect" society ruled by super-enlightened types known as "Philosopher Kings" ... The second tier in this society was to be occupied by the military who were to be worshiped as demi-gods. Their sole function was to protect the sacred posteriors of the aforementioned PKs ... The lowest level was composed of the "proletariat", meaning the common citizens - who were, in effect, non-citizens, whose function mainly was to pay taxes and provide slave labor for the building of monuments and other edifices for the glorification of the PKs and the troops ... Plato's idea resurfaces from time to time. It was hoped that such silliness would have been extinguished during The Enlightenment by the efforts of people like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson - no such luck; this anti-democratic concept has been resurrected lately by a once formidible group led by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney ... I have it on the best authority (a professor friend of mine at NYU) that Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol and a number of other wannabe "Philosopher Kings" became quite fond of Plato's theory when they were fratboys at college ... It seems about 2400 years ago a fellow by the name of Plato came to a similar conclusion. He put it down in an essay called “The Republic” where he envisioned a “perfect” society ruled by super-enlightened types known as “Philosopher Kings” … The second tier in this society was to be occupied by the military who were to be worshiped as demi-gods. Their sole function was to protect the sacred posteriors of the aforementioned PKs … The lowest level was composed of the “proletariat”, meaning the common citizens - who were, in effect, non-citizens, whose function mainly was to pay taxes and provide slave labor for the building of monuments and other edifices for the glorification of the PKs and the troops … Plato’s idea resurfaces from time to time. It was hoped that such silliness would have been extinguished during The Enlightenment by the efforts of people like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson - no such luck; this anti-democratic concept has been resurrected lately by a once formidible group led by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney … I have it on the best authority (a professor friend of mine at NYU) that Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol and a number of other wannabe “Philosopher Kings” became quite fond of Plato’s theory when they were fratboys at college …

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