Plutarch's biographical histories are more relevant than ever right now. Once you read these, you'll realise that all of human history is shaped by the intentions of a few powerful individuals, whether those intentions are good or bad and whether they result in favourable outcomes for the public isn't a concern for them. They're just egotistic people with far too much power in their hands and they shape societies either knowingly or unknowingly.Today, instead of kings and emperors, it's global billionaires who own the streams of information used to influence the public. Their power transcends the law because of how much influence they wield. Just like in Plutarch's histories, we're all at the mercy of a few powerful and egotistical individuals.
Yes. What you've described is a constant in all of human society. But you know, I'm starting to believe this is the way it's supposed to be.The vast majority of people aren't able to nor do they have any interest in existing in a higher state of being. If they are, it's for superficial reasons.In the past, leaders were bound to the people they served and spent their entire lives to ensure the collective interests of all in their group. But now society's become so atomized that I feel it only natural for them to act selfishly and almost as if they exist in a caste separate from the rest of society. That aside, democracy has pretty much defaulted to oligarchy nearly everywhere on earth, and I think it's because of the aforementioned reasons.
>>24958139How do we stop them bro
>>24958170I don't think we can, at least not right now. Things are just stable enough for them to continue exerting control. I think the only real solution for intelligent individuals is to ride it out in a way that benefits them the most.
>>24958118nonsense. billionaires and the subjects of plutarch's lives are mere figureheads and representatives of their respective classes. aurelian acted so because he was a parvenu who rose from being a common soldier to an emperor-he acted much as a common soldier would, a harsh disciplinarian with no real education in the arts of rhetoric or persuasion who acted in the interests of the common soldier. so too is elon musk a mere figurehead-an autistic public schoolboy who acts as an autistic public schoolboy in the interests of autistic public schoolboys
>>24958375>billionaires and the subjects of plutarch's lives are mere figureheads and representatives of their respective classesthis, it's covered by plato in ion
