by Oui
Wed Oct 15th, 2025 at 06:39:56 AM EST
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Alcibiades
by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Alcibiades (ca. 450-404 BCE) lived during turbulent times when the city-states of Athens and Sparta were at war. He grew up as a member of the privileged elite in Athens. At a young age he grew influential within the democratic assembly that met on the Pnyx. As the resident consul for Sparta he forged important diplomatic relationships.
Our democracy is in decline, says classicist and author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (1968). To demonstrate this, he wrote a historical novel about Alcibiades, the extravagant Athenian politician and military commander who played a key role in the Peloponnesian War. Alcibiades (450-404 BC) was, at a young age, a student and lover of the philosopher Socrates, but later gained fame as the military commander who achieved great success with the Athenian army in Sparta. After accusations of sacrilege, he defected to the Spartan side and later served as an advisor at a Persian court.
What are the symptoms of the decline of a democracy? And do you see them reflected in the Netherlands?
There's an ancient Greek theory about the three different forms of government, which I put in the book in the words of the sophist Protagoras. According to this theory, every form of government has a positive and a negative counterpart. For example, monarchy has its counterpart in the form of tyranny, and aristocracy in the form of oligarchy. Democracy also has a negative counterpart, which in Greek is called "ochlocracy": the dictatorship of the masses.
I am convinced that we in the Netherlands are in an ochlocracy. A major symptom of this is that politicians are afraid of public opinion. Hardly any politicians have the courage to develop a long-term vision; no one dares to look beyond the next opinion poll.
Your take on pure capitalism vs. social democracy - Open Thread
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