History repeating itself

As some of you know, I have a penchant for history, probably one of the main reasons I keep a journal, a journal for my daughter, a blog, and poop nonsense. Hey, it's all gotta go somewhere.

Imagine my delighted surprise when parallels where delineated between Plato's The Republic and our current steady demise. I'll put in the bulk of the matter, and the rest you all can read at the appropriate website.

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On the surface, and to most reviewers of Plato's writings, the Republic is a dialogue on justice and on what constitutes the just society. But to careful readers the deeper theme of the Republic is the nature of education and the relationship between education and the survival of the state. In fact, the Republic is essentially the story of how a man (Socrates) condemned to death for "corrupting" the youth of Athens gives to posterity the most precious gift of all: the love of wisdom.

In the Republic, two young men, Glaucon and Adeimantus, accompany the much older Socrates on a journey of discovery into the nature of the individual soul and its connection to the harmony of the state. During the course of their adventure, as the two disciples demonstrate greater maturity and self-control, they are gradually exposed to deeper and more complex teachings regarding the relationship between virtue, self-sufficiency, and happiness. In short, the boys begin to realize that justice and happiness in a community rests upon the moral condition of its citizens. This is what Socrates meant when he said: "The state is man writ large."

Near the end of the Republic Socrates decides to drive this point home by showing Adeimantus what happens to a regime when its parents and educators neglect the proper moral education of its children. In the course of this chilling illustration Adeimantus comes to discover a dark and ominous secret: without proper moral conditioning a regime's "defining principle" will be the source of its ultimate destruction. For democracy, that defining principle is freedom. According to Socrates, freedom makes a democracy but freedom also eventually breaks a democracy.

For Socrates, democracy's "insatiable desire for freedom and neglect of other things" end up putting it "in need of a dictatorship." The short version of his theory is that the combination of freedom and poor education in a democracy render the citizens incapable of mastering their impulses and deferring gratification. The reckless pursuit of freedom leads the citizens to raze moral barriers, deny traditional authority, and abandon established methods of education. Eventually, this uninhibited quest for personal freedom forces the public to welcome the tyrant. Says Socrates: "Extreme freedom can't be expected to lead to anything but a change to extreme slavery, whether for a private individual or for a city."

Adeimantus wants Socrates to explain what kind of man resembles the democratic city. In other words, he wants to know how "democratic man" comes to be and what happens to make this freedom loving man eventually beg for a tyrant. Socrates clarifies that the democratic man starts out as the son of an "oligarchic" father -- a father who is thrifty and self-disciplined. The father's generation is more concerned with wealth than freedom. This first generation saves, invests, and rarely goes in for conspicuous consumption.[i]

The father's pursuit of wealth leaves him unwilling and unable to give attention to his son's moral development. The father focuses on business and finance and ignores the business of family. The son then begins to associate with "wild and dangerous creatures who can provide every variety of multicolored pleasure in every sort of way." These Athenian precursors of the hippies begin to transform the son's oligarchic nature into a democratic one. Because the young man has had no moral guidance, his excessive desire for "unnecessary pleasures" undermines "the citadel" of his soul. Because the "guardians" of the son's inner citadel -- truth, restraint, wisdom -- are absent, there is nothing within him to defend against the "false and boastful words and beliefs that rush up and occupy this part of him."

A 1960s revolution in the son's soul purges the last remaining guardians of moderation and supplants new meanings to old virtues: "anarchy" replaces freedom, "extravagance" replaces magnificence, and "shamelessness" replaces courage. The young man surrenders rule over himself "to whichever desire comes along, as if it were chosen by lot." Here Socrates notes the essential problem when a free society becomes detached from any notions of moral virtue or truth: desires are chosen by "lot" instead of by "merit" or "priority."

For the son the democratic revolution in his soul is complete. In this stage "there is neither order nor necessity in his life, but he calls it pleasant, free, blessedly happy, and he follows it for as long as he lives." Socrates gives a brief illustration of the young man's new democratic life:

Sometimes he drinks heavily while listening to the flute; at other times he drinks only water and is on a diet; sometimes he goes in for physical training; at other times, he's idle and neglects everything; and sometimes he even occupies himself with what he takes to be philosophy. He often engages in politics, leaping up from his seat and saying and doing whatever comes into his mind. If he happens to admire soldiers, he's carried in that direction, if money-makers, in that one.

In short, the young man has no anchor, no set of guiding principles or convictions other than his thirst for freedom. His life is aimless, superficial, and gratuitous. The spoiled lotus-eaters of his generation have defined themselves simply by mocking all forms of propriety and prudence. What's worse, as these Athenian baby-boomers exercise their right to vote, they elect "bad cupbearers" as their leaders. The new cupbearers want to stay in office so they give the voters whatever they desire. The public, according to Socrates, "gets drunk by drinking more than it should of the unmixed wine of freedom." Conservative politicians who attempt to mix the wine of freedom with calls for self-restraint "are punished by the city and accused of being accursed oligarchs."

As conservative politicians court suspicion so do conservative teachers and academics who stubbornly hold on to objective measurements of performance: "A teacher in such a community is afraid of his students and flatters them, while the students despise their teachers or tutors." Conservatism becomes unpopular just about everywhere, to a point at which even the elderly "stoop to the level of the young and are full of play and pleasantry, imitating the young for fear of appearing disagreeable and authoritarian."

The explosion of boundaries and limits extends even to national identity itself, so that resident aliens and foreigners "are made equal to a citizen."

The citizens' souls become so infected with freedom that they become excessively paranoid about any hint of slavery. But slavery comes to mean being under any kind of master or limit including the law itself. Says Socrates: "They take no notice of the laws, whether written or unwritten, in order to avoid having any master at all." That is, any kind of "hierarchy" in a democracy is rejected as "authoritarian." But this extreme freedom, according to Socrates, eventually enslaves democracy.

As the progressive politicians and intellectuals come to dominate the democratic city, its "fiercest members do all the talking and acting, while the rest settle near the speakers platform and buzz and refuse to tolerate the opposition of another speaker." There are "impeachments, judgments and trials on both sides." The politicians heat up the crowds by vilifying business and wealth and by promising to spread the wealth around. The people then "set up one man as their special champion" and begin "nurturing him and making him great."

The people's "special champion" however transforms from leader to tyrant. He "drops hints about the cancellation of debts and the redistribution of land" and continues to "stir up civil wars against the rich." All who have reached this stage, says Socrates, "soon discover the famous request of a tyrant, namely, that the people give him a bodyguard to keep their defender safe for them." The people give him this new security force, "because they are afraid for his safety but aren't worried at all about their own."

Socrates describes the early weeks of the new leader's reign:

"Won't he smile in welcome at anyone he meets, saying that he's no tyrant, making all sorts of promises both in public and in private, freeing the people from debt, redistributing land to them, and to his followers, and pretending to be gracious and gentle to all?"

After a series of unpopular actions, including stirring up a war in order to generate popular support, the leader begins to alienate some of his closest and most ardent advisers who begin to voice their misgivings in private. Following a purge of these advisors the tyrant attracts some of the worst elements of the city to help him rule. As the citizens grow weary of his tenure the tyrant chooses to attract foreigners to resupply his dwindling national bodyguard. The citizens finally decide they've had enough and begin to discuss rebellion.

At this point in the dialogue Adeimantus asks Socrates incredulously: "What do you mean? Will the tyrant dare to use violence against [the people] or to hit [them] if [they] don't obey? Socrates answers:

"Yes - once he's taken away [the people's] weapons."

***

Here is the full article for your review, it is worth your time:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/02/how_democracies_become_tyranni.html

And here you can read the entire text from Plato:

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

Fascinating, no? 2300 years ago Plato had already seen this outcome. Interestingly enough, the Romans would see it happening again, with Julius Caesar. Caesar being the man who turned the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire, caused a civil war which he won, and thus dominated the people. Caesar in Latin is Kaisar, which we have also seen manifested. Maybe Kaiser means community organizer in Americanese? I mean, he did suggest a "security force" for the US already. Google it, Obama + security force. The dominos are set. Nobody sneeze.

Come what may

I admit that I did not take the appropriate classes in college to actually know what the total current economic problem is. Yes, that adversely affects my ego. Don't worry, I'll just make fun of someone and be back on par shortly.

But here's what I have figured out without said education: if we're just slowing down the problem of a recession and still haven't hit rock-bottom, then why are we doing that? We've already been through two "stimulus projects;" the $150 billion return from last spring which netted my family a $1500 check ($600 + $600 + $300) which was spent on... something? I don't remember. I didn't earn* the money so I didn't track its expenditure. Then came the other bailout stimulus last fall that was over $700 billion. And that failed too.

As of today, I noted that the proposed new bailout stimulus is over $900 billion and counting. All for what? I mean, ACORN apparently gets a few billion out of that, and $250 million goes to Hollywood for movie productions. But, what is the point? We've already dumped billions and the economy is still sinking! It isn't saving any jobs, houses are still foreclosing at record levels, and Congresses approval rating isn't going any higher.

I'm looking at this with the band aid approach: take it off quickly. And that's how I see the economy at this point. Let it hit rock bottom faster, so we can start the rebuilding process quickly. If that means a Depression, sobeit. At least we'll hit the bottom and can start working our way up instead of our current method of moving slowly down to the bottom.

Now I don't mean that a Depression is a good thing. I remember my grandma talking about how hard it was back them, and then when given an orange, she mistook it for a ball, as she had never had an orange before. She was about 10. At the same time, it did produce "The Greatest Generation" and ended with the greatest war in history in terms of sheer violence and death. I'd like to avoid that aspect, obviously.

Here's my point: last year the US Government paid $416 billion in interest on the Federal Deficit. Supposedly we 'owe' this money to ourselves, and yet we pay interest on it, which doesn't make much sense to me unless someone is financing this pending domino debaucle. So if we're going to continue dumping money into a failing economy, then pay interest on that with the increased bailout amounts, there will come a point when we're paying over a trillion dollars in interest per year. Our GNP is around $13.8 trillion per year. Our Federal Deficit is climbing over 10 trillion right now. So we're paying close to 5% interest on our national debt. I hate to say it, but I think we need a depression to bring us back to reality on a national level. We've lived beyond our means for too long. We're going bankrupt as a nation, just like Iceland is going through right now.

There are other alternatives such as balancing the budget, but with Obama in office, it just isn't likely with a National Healthcare agenda. I know, Clinton had a budget surplus for his last year in office, but it wasn't put towards the national debt and it was spent. Republicans used to have the right mentality of cutting spending and big government, but they lost their foundation a while ago.

Let's look at this another way: if we don't do this now, guess what will happen when we truly are nationally bankrupt? That's when no one will finance us because our international credit rating is bunk. We'll possibly be 20 or 30 trillion in debt by then, and nothing will bail us out. Not only that, but our currency will be valued less than the paper it is printed on. It'll be like Germany after WWI. A barrel full of money for a loaf of bread. They got out of by gearing up for war.

So again, my economic expertise doesn't expand much further than my checkbook, but looking at our national situation, and the growing issue of debt, I think that we need to get things fixed sooner, rather than later because the fallout from the national debt will make The Great Depression look like speed bump comparatively speaking.

*Technically I did earn the money, as the government actually has no money itself; but rather, our taxed money. Still, I pay taxes because I support this country and this stimulus was just an additional tax return.

Changing of the Guard

In case you missed it due to some lucky coma (and even then your excuse is pretty weak), earlier this week there was a momentous power exchange between the quixotic political parties: the Presidency. The poster boy for the Democrats took office, floundering over the oath a little, but still official. Mr Obama is everywhere in my news. We're just one bored journalist's dilemma from knowing Mr Obama's routine bowel movements, if he has any.

I don't have anything in particular against Mr Obama per se. Originally, I thought he was a decent fellow, but clearly a long-shot from getting into the white house based upon the fact he was a one-term junior senator with practically no political experience. And we didn't really know him very well. I lumped him into the same category as Fred Thompson, the actor who ran on the Republican ticket.

Yet somehow, this no-name low-on-the-totem pole senator picked up momentum and defeated Hillary Clinton, which is impossible. And I mean that. Even when Clinton lead Obama by double digits in state polls, he still beat her, sometimes handily. It is highly questionable to me, but thankfully the media swept by those issues and fueled the mania. That mania banked on "Change" even though there was no real difference between Hillary's and Barak's change -- it actually came down to a popularity contest in the end. In this case, always bet on black.

Questions aside, I do recognize that even the best republican would have lost the election. It wasn't that Bush buried all hope for republicans; it was the media. Bush did what he thought was morally right for the country. Same thing Lincoln did, coincidentally. Sure, there is the black mark of Iraq - but let's face it: we all bought into it. We were in the wake of 9/11, the CIA comes out with a report that says WMDs in Iraq, other countries agree, and Sadam had ousted the UN inspectors several months before they were supposed to leave. In short, our intelligence community let us down, but the media pegged one fall guy specifically. Unless, of course, Iraq did have some WMDs and shipped them out. Meh, wasteful thinking.

The other sorta black mark is Hurricane Katrina, which is not Bush's fault unless he does control the weather. But, New Orleans was aware of the dangers. In a poll taken 3 months prior, 37% of citizens said they wouldn't abandon New Orleans if a hurrican ever came. Lo and behold, guess what happened? People suffered. Bush believed FEMA could handle it. They failed. Not him. He came a few days late, but what could he do? His FEMA organization was in shambles.

I'm not here to wipe Bush's slate clean, but he was unfairly targeted, villianized, crucified, and finally, called the "worst president ever" which is crap.

So now we have Obama, and my premilinary judgment is muddled. I want to think that he will be able to fix the economy (again, a problem brewing since Carter's era) and make things all nice and peachy. He presumptuously aligns himself with Lincoln, the media eat it up, and I hear about it nearly 24/7. Let me put it this way; he is not Lincoln by any means. And history will judge Obama accordingly. Lincoln was extremely unpopular during his day -- after all, he presided over our bloodiest moments.

If I were the draw parallels for Mr Obama, I'd say he's closer to Franklin D. Roosevelt. A decent president who saved the economy by going into war. Seriously, stock market crashed in October in 1929, he was elected in 1932, and we remained in a depression for almost 10 years until WWII. See, Mr Obama is already proposing what FDR did, more taxes and stimulus options. How does that help consumer confidence? More taxes, great. Sure, it'll make way for more government jobs, I understand. At my cost, though.

Anyway, here's what I'll do. I admit that I do not trust Mr Obama. He came out of no-where, I don't know his policies (aside from overt liberal agenda), and I fear that his long-term fixes. In short (heh, hardly), the old adage that the constitution will hang by a thread is now well on it's way to being true. The American Way, coupled with the American Dream, will become a nice piece of history. Well, it'll be re-written to look selfish. We are working towards socialism now. Gah! Side tangent -- this whole freakin' post is side-tangent upon side-tangent.

Okay, again, I'll respect the office of the president, which more than I can say for the rest of the country while Bush was in office. I'll give Obama the chance to succeed and try not to be cynical... yet. There have been good Democratic presidents as well as bad ones. But, I just feel that yellow journalism will forever slander any good republican candidate, and that this country is more one-sided than ever. Actually, I know for a fact: there are now 17 million more democrats than republicans. Super. Who needs bipartisan when you have a majority? Even Mickey Mouse is probably a democrat now. Filthy little rat.

This Gas Stinks!

As some of you may have known, we spent 2 weeks snow-birding in Florida, specifically, Orlando and the Keys over the Christmas break. I can highly recommend the Keys to anyone, especially Key West if you're heterosexually challenged. If not, uhm, leave once the sun goes down unless you like mental scars.

Anyway, back to business.

So, gone for two weeks. I turned the water heater off, turned the heat down, closed up the house and left. Prior to that we burned wood to keep warm. Imagine my surprise today when I got the heating bill which was clocking in at $230. Sure, the weather was piss-poor (and I missed a white Christmas for Oregon in lieu of palm trees with lights -- not the same!). Still, I am highly miffed over this, and I did what any other reasonable man would do in the same circumstance. No, it didn't involve cleaning guns and mapping out exit routes at the nearest NW Natural Gas station although truthfully that did cross my mind. But, instead I went outside and chopped wood and built a fire. It is still burning brightly.

We had a similar issue like this last year, same time. We left for a week, turned stuff off, and came back to a $200 bill. We balked last year, they sent out a tech, he determined there wasn't a gas leak, and that prompted us to lower our "room temperature" to a unforgiving 63 degrees. My wife didn't like that, but money is apparently more important than heating. For this winter, we beefed it up to a sultry 64 degrees. It was cold. We do need to replace the 20 year old windows, but my wife has industrial duty curtains on them already. Plus, we're still paying off the roof, and, erm, vacation.

The interim plan is thus; we've replaced nearly all the old light bulbs with mercury-laden environmentally energy efficient versions in hopes to lower our electric bill so we can get a space heater! And build more fires. I wonder how much NW Natural gas would like a fire...

Taking one for the team

We're in Florida for Christmas, and it surely does not feel like Christmas since the weather is overly pleasant for this time of year, although the humidity (currently 94%) is a deal breaker.

There are some times when the "dad" has to take hit for the team, and today would be one of those occasions. See, previously I would have not suspected that I would be making a blog post on Christmas day, yet here I am. I am here because my family is at DisneyWorld without me. The park was "filled to capacity" and so I didn't get in. But everyone else did. Meanwhile, I've done a couple loads of laundry, burnt an omelet, and have yearned for a nap, of which will probably not come. I'm just not big on naps; but this has slightly changed with my high-maintenance princess-in-training.

I suppose I cannot complain too much. After all, I've never been too keen on Disney anything. Buggs Bunny was more my style. Still, this is the day you're supposed to spend with family. And I know they plan to stay until the fireworks display. Maybe I'll take a dip in the pool, soak in the spa, and blame the water for those tears in my eye.

Aargh!

So this is my punishment for making fun of King Triton and his slow swimmers. Super.

As you know, or will know shortly, we're expecting a girl instead of a boy now, which immediately sent my wife searching through names since before we were totally fixated on boy names. No more.

Clearly there is some correlation going on here. A few of my other manly man friends who grew up with me in the Pacific Northwest have also only spawned women-folk, and I am not sure why. Perhaps it is to even out the playing field -- after all, we are manly men. But on the other hand, it could be a curse or even a parting gift from our Order of the Arrow adviser, who, coincidentally, controlled the water for the region.

On the one hand, my daughter will have a sister. On the other, more proms, weddings and other girlie things such as drama. Oooo I can't wait. The good news is that my wife was gracious enough to say that I can buy more weapons now, which I fully intend to do so. But I'll probably have to turn one of my daughters into a tom-boy. Both will get some sort of self-defense class, perhaps Judo or Jujitsu. Of course, I'll inventory some mace/pepper-spray for them and the obligatory "all penises are evil" tattoo on their foreheads -- last thing I need to hear is "daddy I'm pregnant" before they graduate from high school.

*sigh* I'm sure I'll think of more stuff to fret over in the not-t00-distant future. Girls are so scary when you have no idea how to manage them. So far as I am concerned, you give them jewelry and shoes and things work out fine. Throw in a lame romantic vampire book and it's even better. But this ... this is on the verge of madness. Guess I'll have to watch more Little Mermaid, see how King Triton manages all his daughters ... and still have time to curse me. Wait, King Triton sucked at it, Ariel being the example therein. Crap. Ariel. Crap, crap, crap!

It's just rude

As some of you know, I've been looking for work just like so many other folks these days. Well, a few weeks ago I had a job interview with HeadStart. Today I went in for a follow-up and basically, an offer to work there provided I pass a physical and urine analysis. I don't fear too much of the outcome, but my blood pressure was slightly elevated in the "normal" area.

Here's what I don't like, and maybe you can agree: I don't like dirty old doctors with cold hands man-handling my privates. And the fact that this guy had to do it thrice really irritates me because in the end, I had to pay for it! I mean, I vigorously coughed twice, but "just for good measure" we did it once more. Super! I don't know, maybe he considered it a date or something, but he could at least have a little common courtesy next time -- warm up the hands, and maybe fetch me a heavy shot of morphine. I'd rather not remember these sorts of things.

The worst part is that now I feel like I need a heavy dose of Viagra. I can still feel the coldness gripping the life out of ... uhm, me. But, as he told me with a solid smile, I don't have a hernia. Great, but I also don't have a libido either. I feel there is a coorelation. Maybe next time he can give me a ride in his red Corvette that was so prominently parked outside the clinic. But then, maybe I could charge him next time too. I mean, if I'm going to incur mental scars, I want to at least make a buck or two while doing it. It's the American way.