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Patrick Powers's avatar

Aristotle describes oligarchy, rule by the rich for their own benefit. It sounds very familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMguSl8PHS4

In ancient Greece each city had its own government. Change happened quickly. So it was an excellent laboratory for observing the various systems of government. Nothing has changed since then. There is only one way for the rich to rule for their own benefit and we are living in it.

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Luc Arnaud Dunoyer's avatar

I wonder why people always cite ancient Greece like it's some magical pudding ... It's 2000+ years old seriously 😒

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy#:~:text=The%20pure%20form%20of%20direct,strong%20instruments%20of%20direct%20democracy).

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Patrick Powers's avatar

Anyone who bothers to listen to the vid will find out that what was going on then is exactly the same as what is going on now.

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Luc Arnaud Dunoyer's avatar

Yep, didn't say that it wasn't the case.

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Luc Arnaud Dunoyer's avatar

To be clear, I'm not saying direct democracy is the way, I'm just saying it currently exists to this day so no need to call out old history and antiquated thinkers.

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Carolyn L Zaremba's avatar

Studying ancient history is not outdated. The way to avoid mistakes is to have knowledge of who made those same mistakes a long time ago. The history of human consciousness is long.

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Luc Arnaud Dunoyer's avatar

Yep, didn't say that we shouldn't study it.

Let me give you an example closer to my wheelhouse: I studied Lamarkism, learned about it, even teach it as historical context, but I don't go around the world focusing on that ... I don't even do that with Darwin ... I teach the Modern Synthesis. That's just me though.

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