Democracies end when they are too democratic | New York Magazine | April 2016 As this dystopian election campaign has unfolded, my mind keeps being tugged by a passage in Plato’s Republic. It has unsettled — even surprised — me from the moment I first read it in graduate school. The passage is from the part of the dialogue where
Two Pop Culture Wars: First Over Comics, Then Over Music | New York Times | October 2015 How about this concept for a new movie: A highly ambitious young man kills his father. Then he marries his mother. They have several children together. He becomes a powerful figure. Eventually, though, he is horrified by all he has done, the anguish
Democracy and the Demagogue | New York Times | October 2015 In Book VIII of “The Republic,” Plato is clear-eyed about these perils for democracy. He worries that a “towering despot” will inevitably rise in any democracy to exploit its freedoms and seize power by fomenting fear of some group and representing himself as the protector of the people against
Is This a Sandwich? Teaching the Platonic Dialogues Through Sandwiches | Medium | August 2014 — Well, Socrates, I am happy to tell you what a sandwich is, as I have great knowledge of these things as you know.— Thank you, Euthyphro, I will be glad to listen to you, for you are a learned man and I am just