#democracy

What happens when people feel unheard and vote for a demagogue? What Plato attributed to the concept of ‘Thymos’ 2,400 years ago, today finds a tangible connection in the brain. The ramifications for democratic thought are profound.

First Brexit, then Trump. 2016 was not a good year for modern Western democracies. In 2018, the consequences of these votes seem worse than many pessimists anticipated. So what might Plato, a notoriously harsh critic of democracy, have said about all of this?