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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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I think the key variable is power, and information technology has muddied what is meant by power (by, for example, rendering the question of whether pen is mightier than the sword moot). 1/2
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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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