About this so-called "New Normal"

You're all hearing about it, right?  All over the news, in print,  everywhere.

THE NEW NORMAL.

Well, I've got one word to say about all this "new normality": 

Plato.


More specifically- I am going to call your attention to Plato's Republic (it's a book, in case some of you are still wondering what "Plato" means)-  Plato was a student of Socrates (and the one student that Socrates eventually admitted was his intellectual superior- but why am I doing Google's job here?  Go read more about Plato on your own time)

Plato's Republic was published in 380 BC  (2393 years ago)  - that's a long flippin time ago, kids.


Anyway- in his book "The Republic", Chapter 8, Plato theorizes:

"democratic leaders will realize that they are only easily supported when there is a war that the people can rally behind. And so the democratic leaders will unnecessarily become involved in violent affairs, creating wars to distract the people. To ensure their power, the leaders will create laws to bolster their position. The rulers will impose heavy taxes against the commoners to ensure they are unable or unwilling to fight back… And any who do oppose the leaders will be labeled as an enemy and persecuted as a spy."

-Excerpt courtesy of  http://classicalwisdom.com/plato-and-the-disaster-of-democracy/


Sounds eerily familiar, right? The Romans fell prey to this, as did the Nazi's, as did the Japanese, as did the British Empire, as has the United States.

Plato theorized current events in the US nearly 2400 year ago. 

There is nothing "new"  about our current "normal".  

I wanted to make sure everyone was clear on that- we are actually living in a very old "normal" - and one that has ended badly every time it was tried.

Keep your focus away from "normality",  and keep it glued on reality instead- the real world is a pleasant place- the sun shines, the water's nice, and there is plenty to do in order to feel productive and entertained...