“As I learn more and more about global power dynamics and interact with more and more people around the world responding to the things I have to say, I find myself growing more and more disdainful of those who live directly under the thumb of the US empire and yet spend their time criticizing unabsorbed governments like Russia and China. It's literally the most pathetic, snivelling, power-serving position anyone can possibly take at this point in history.”
There’s a word for that: slave morality. They’re unable to think about the plank in their eye, but rail about the needles in the eyes of others.
As Confucius once said, “the strong man is hard on himself, the weak man is hard on others.” They are fake Timocrats. They feign virtue and honor, but they’re really just operating based on tribal affinity and the desire for personal gain. They rely on imitating the behaviors of those who actually care, but only to the extent they can leverage them for their own personal interest or that of their tribe. We saw a lot of this in religion and politics. These are the truly weak people, the ones with no humility, terrified of turning the mirror on themselves. There are plenty of people who will do something bad or commit crimes, but they won’t try to convince you that it’s Good or right. The fake Timocrats and “Democrats” in Plato’s Republic, where he very accurate describes the decline of the states, the different stages of defer degeneration, are the main pretenders, the “imitators.” Finally, at the end of all this, a Tyrant usually comes in to bring order and push back against these tribes, but then finds himself with absolute power, which he won’t relinquish.
The solution is to abandon tribal affinity and pursue the real thing, namely ie to love of wisdom. Without that, we can talk about any and as perfect a political system as one can dream of, but it will always fall and lead to chaos and destruction of this seemingly unimportant or abstract notion, wisdom, is kicked to the curb. It’s the most practical thing that can be done, as both Confucius and Plato well understood.
“As I learn more and more about global power dynamics and interact with more and more people around the world responding to the things I have to say, I find myself growing more and more disdainful of those who live directly under the thumb of the US empire and yet spend their time criticizing unabsorbed governments like Russia and China. It's literally the most pathetic, snivelling, power-serving position anyone can possibly take at this point in history.”
There’s a word for that: slave morality. They’re unable to think about the plank in their eye, but rail about the needles in the eyes of others.
As Confucius once said, “the strong man is hard on himself, the weak man is hard on others.” They are fake Timocrats. They feign virtue and honor, but they’re really just operating based on tribal affinity and the desire for personal gain. They rely on imitating the behaviors of those who actually care, but only to the extent they can leverage them for their own personal interest or that of their tribe. We saw a lot of this in religion and politics. These are the truly weak people, the ones with no humility, terrified of turning the mirror on themselves. There are plenty of people who will do something bad or commit crimes, but they won’t try to convince you that it’s Good or right. The fake Timocrats and “Democrats” in Plato’s Republic, where he very accurate describes the decline of the states, the different stages of defer degeneration, are the main pretenders, the “imitators.” Finally, at the end of all this, a Tyrant usually comes in to bring order and push back against these tribes, but then finds himself with absolute power, which he won’t relinquish.
The solution is to abandon tribal affinity and pursue the real thing, namely ie to love of wisdom. Without that, we can talk about any and as perfect a political system as one can dream of, but it will always fall and lead to chaos and destruction of this seemingly unimportant or abstract notion, wisdom, is kicked to the curb. It’s the most practical thing that can be done, as both Confucius and Plato well understood.