Report: Freedom-Loving FL and Locked-Down CA Both See 30 Percent Reduction in COVID Cases and Deaths
One of the questions I often get asked is, “Charlie, who do you think is the best pundit in terms of really understanding what is going on in American politics today?” After mulling over a few different answers to this question over time, I believe I have now settled on who I feel best describes what is going on in our country right now.
The problem is he was describing it 2,400 years ago. The man who best understands us is the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.
I’ve been reengaging Aristotle’s Politics of late, both through reading and enjoying lectures by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn. It has been a couple of years since I last visited the writings and ideas of Plato’s prize student (it is a testament to what a great teacher Plato was that he was able to produce such a free-thinking alumni who agreed with him so little). In his time, Aristotle’s words might have sounded like just another theory from the relatively new field of philosophy.
Today, however, his words read more like conclusions of a validated hypothesis born out of centuries of empirical experience. Consider the following passage from Politics: “Dictators preserve themselves by not letting there be any schools or collegial gathering for leisure pursuits, and doing everything that will keep people as unknown to one another as possible, since familiarity breeds a greater degree of trust.”
To say it differently (a bold task, might I admit, in re-phrasing the Greek master), if we can keep people apart from one another, we can keep them from ever truly coming together and having the strength necessary to defeat tyranny.
This not only makes general intuitive sense; we have seen the tactic brought into play over the past year as politicians around the country, especially the likes of Governors Pritzker (Illinois), Newsom (California), Cuomo (New York), and Whitmer, (Michigan), have used the Chinese coronavirus as an excuse to force people to separate. Keep schools closed. Shut down churches. Prevent social gatherings. Wear two masks. These sorts of requirements to separate us physically and visibly from one-another have fractured and fragmented us. Americans have become more susceptible to tyranny because we have become less and less “known” to our fellow citizens.
Andrew Cuomo is shattering NYC’s restaurant business...for no reason
One of the questions I often get asked is, “Charlie, who do you think is the best pundit in terms of really understanding what is going on in American politics today?” After mulling over a few different answers to this question over time, I believe I have now settled on who I feel best describes what is going on in our country right now.
The problem is he was describing it 2,400 years ago. The man who best understands us is the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.
I’ve been reengaging Aristotle’s Politics of late, both through reading and enjoying lectures by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn. It has been a couple of years since I last visited the writings and ideas of Plato’s prize student (it is a testament to what a great teacher Plato was that he was able to produce such a free-thinking alumni who agreed with him so little). In his time, Aristotle’s words might have sounded like just another theory from the relatively new field of philosophy.
Today, however, his words read more like conclusions of a validated hypothesis born out of centuries of empirical experience. Consider the following passage from Politics: “Dictators preserve themselves by not letting there be any schools or collegial gathering for leisure pursuits, and doing everything that will keep people as unknown to one another as possible, since familiarity breeds a greater degree of trust.”
To say it differently (a bold task, might I admit, in re-phrasing the Greek master), if we can keep people apart from one another, we can keep them from ever truly coming together and having the strength necessary to defeat tyranny.
This not only makes general intuitive sense; we have seen the tactic brought into play over the past year as politicians around the country, especially the likes of Governors Pritzker (Illinois), Newsom (California), Cuomo (New York), and Whitmer, (Michigan), have used the Chinese coronavirus as an excuse to force people to separate. Keep schools closed. Shut down churches. Prevent social gatherings. Wear two masks. These sorts of requirements to separate us physically and visibly from one-another have fractured and fragmented us. Americans have become more susceptible to tyranny because we have become less and less “known” to our fellow citizens.