Socrates Meets Donald Trump
In the age of Socrates,
among men of fatigued instincts,
among the conservatives of ancient Athens
who let themselves go—-
“toward happiness,” as they said,
toward pleasure, as they acted—-
and who all the while still mouthed
the ancient pompous words
to which their lives no longer gave them any right,
irony may have been required for greatness of soul,
that Socratic assurance of the old physician and plebeian
who cut ruthlessly into his own flesh,
as he did into the flesh and heart of the “noble,”
with a look that said clearly enough:
“Don’t dissemble in front of me!
Here—we are equal.”
Conservatism: a savage flood and tidal wave of selfishness
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil,
We Scholars #212
