<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->And then, there was another group as well. For the sake of convenience, let us call them philosophers (those who loved wisdom). We know the names of many such; one of them, the most well-known, is Plato. This philosopher was not happy, either with the bards or with what they did. He felt that the bards incited the crowd into irrational behaviour based on irrational feelings. Instead of inculcating reasonableness, Plato thought, these bards pandered to the emotions of people. Emotions were always bad advisors, especially if they concerned matters of polity. He opposed educating the children (who would be the future Athenians) by teaching them legends and mythologies because such stories, according to Plato, always exaggerated, distorted and lied about the past. In fact, Plato envisioned an ideal state that would ban all the poets and bards into exile; such a state, ruled by a philosopher-king, would be the polis to live in because it alone cultivated reason among its citizens. He opposed âmythâ to âhistoryâ, and âemotionsâ to âreasonâ. He believed that not myths but history should guide the behaviour of the civilized Athenians. He saw the bards as âoratorsâ and counterposed ârhetoricâ (the art of speech) of his time to âreasonâ. Oration cultivated demagogy (that which appealed to the irrationality and the emotions of the crowd) and thus poisoned the youth, whereas philosophy cultivated reason.
These two tendencies were apparently each otherâs rivals in the Athens of so-long-ago. However, before either of the tendencies could gain dominance, the Greek civilization collapsed. In the future, the torch lit in Athens would be carried only partially by the Roman Empire.//www.cultuurwetenschap.be[/url]]
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This fifth paragraph re-iterates the Hellenistic origin of History (as opposed to heathenish historiography).
The subsequent account of the Jews suffering the edicts of their punishing God is clearly an account of an imposition of a paralyzing and sterilizing psyops by a colonial power.
These two tendencies were apparently each otherâs rivals in the Athens of so-long-ago. However, before either of the tendencies could gain dominance, the Greek civilization collapsed. In the future, the torch lit in Athens would be carried only partially by the Roman Empire.//www.cultuurwetenschap.be[/url]]
[right][snapback]94396[/snapback][/right]
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This fifth paragraph re-iterates the Hellenistic origin of History (as opposed to heathenish historiography).
The subsequent account of the Jews suffering the edicts of their punishing God is clearly an account of an imposition of a paralyzing and sterilizing psyops by a colonial power.