Against those who consider politics a consequence of the Fall, Chad Pecknold argues that politics is inscribed in our nature—as well as in our passions.
Great sentence here: "Plato says in the democratic city, that is the feverish polity, all desires come to be seen as equal, and so the democratic soul can no longer recognize what is truly disturbing the balance of their regime, because they can no longer discern between bad and good desires." And we clearly see this reflected today. In fact, the "good" or "bad" judgment of any desire today is nearly extinct. In America, we have seen an alignment of financial incentives within the capitalist model around different desires which has been used to leverage the shortcomings of pure democracies that both Plato and Aristotle warned about.
Great sentence here: "Plato says in the democratic city, that is the feverish polity, all desires come to be seen as equal, and so the democratic soul can no longer recognize what is truly disturbing the balance of their regime, because they can no longer discern between bad and good desires." And we clearly see this reflected today. In fact, the "good" or "bad" judgment of any desire today is nearly extinct. In America, we have seen an alignment of financial incentives within the capitalist model around different desires which has been used to leverage the shortcomings of pure democracies that both Plato and Aristotle warned about.
It’s not that the demos is unaware of the fever, but that they are so morally disoriented that they cannot heal themselves of their own accord.
Thank you for the clarity you bring to this topic. I found it highly illuminating.