this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Plato fascist

Wake up babe, new ancient Greek metapolitical lore just dropped

[–] kromem 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not so new. For example, see Acton, The Alleged Fascism of Plato (1938).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Frankly, claiming that Plato is fascist is pure nonsense. It's ignoring the history of political thought (including, notably, Plato) and the economical and societal background that led to fascism.

You can argue that he inspired fascism or that he was a kind of proto-fascist. That would be weird (since it would exclude all the modern causes and influences for fascism), but arguable. But calling him a fascist is just an anachronism.

[–] kromem 8 points 10 months ago

That's why I called him "a bit of a fascist."

You edited my comment to remove the "bit of a."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Republic is well known and cited by pretty much every burgeoning autocrat throughout history.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The Republic is cited by everyone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

The Republic is undoubtedly influential in Western philosophy, but you won't find many contemporary political scientists or philosophers referencing it directly without a very heavy dose of qualification. In this context it's most often used as a primary historical work more than a philosophical one.

Pretty much the only time you will see someone engaging with it as a work of authoritative or relevant philosophy (and really, just, a handful of notable passages) is in the context of anti-liberal rhetoric which is intentionally exploiting the assumption that the reader does not have a broad background in contemporary politics, but might know the name "Plato."

It's kind of like the difference between quoting Newton in the context of general relativity, versus quoting Newton in support of the luminiferous aether.

[–] Baines 0 points 10 months ago

everyone pushing a western centric from Rome is civilization viewpoint