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Listening to Johnson reciting The Iliad in Ancient Greek for 2 minutes is a useful reminder that comparisons to 😡 are not only facile but way, way too flattering of the latter
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Boris Johnson, damals noch Bürgermeister von London, rezitierte einmal während eines Interviews Auszüge der Ilias in Altgriechisch.
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I basically agree with Pareto about the circulation of elites, and as ideal-types "foxes" and "lions" are useful archetypes. Of course, empirical reality is not always so neat. 😡 for example talks like a 'lion' but acts (insofar as there's any coherence to it) more like a 'fox.'
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But I think there's a litmus test: it is still crystal clear who admires power vs. insight. So a lion is *defined* as someone whose actions draw the admiration of power-admirers, regardless of the particular form of their behaviors. So Jacksonian America is still "power" oriented
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My memory of Pareto is vague but aren't foxes "co-opters" who believe in decentralization, pluralism and restraint in the use of force, whereas lions are authoritarians who rule through centralized, hierarchical bureaucracies, emphasizing unity, homogeneity & established ways?