Tyranny from Plato to Trump: Fools, Sycophants, and Citizens

by Andrew Fiala

A greedy bully seizes his moment to make a grab for power. Bootlicking kiss-ups swarm around him. Mobs of partisans are seduced by lies, propaganda, and virulent ideology. Plagues and violence breakout. People die and the nation falters. This is a common, recurring tragedy: tyrants rise to power, sycophants suck up, the moronic masses cheer it on, against their interests.

And things fall apart.

This is a tale of the contemporary political landscape of the USA, but it is also a story as old as the Ancient Greeks. Plato and Sophocles described this trio of political characters; they warned that tragedy unfolds in the absence of reason, and proposed wisdom and virtue as the cure. This account was well-known to the Founders of the United States, who imagined the U.S. Constitution as a solution to tyranny. The dream of Enlightenment required educated citizens and leaders informed by philosophy, theology, and history. The Trump era prompts us to think about perennial themes in politics, philosophy and morality. The bad news is that there have always been morons, sycophants, and tyrants. The good news is that once we know this, we can prepare a response. At times, each of us can be tyrannical, moronic, and sycophantic. That is why we need reason and virtue, as well as a political system that restrains our worst inclinations.

This book brings historical insight to bear on current affairs, the arc of the Trump phenomenon, and uses the contemporary moment to illuminate universal themes of human society.

• ISBN10: 153816048X
• ISBN13: 9781538160480
• Publish Date: 15 March 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Tyranny from Plato to Trump: Fools, Sycophants, and Citizens is an expository survey of the historical, social and theological impacts of tyranny and suppression written by Dr. Andrew Fiala. Due out 1st March 2022 from Rowman & Littlefield, it's 256 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a layman accessible but meticulously annotated examination of tyranny, drawing parallels from Plato's time (fourth century BCE) down through history to the Trump era. The author is a philosopher and lecturer and it's clear from the first sentence onward that he is not a "very fine people on both sides" kind of guy. This is not a dispassionate obstinately neutral factual examination of the concept of tyranny. It is an eloquently and logically built exposition on how to fight tyranny and recognize it in its nascent stages without having to radically excise it at a dangerously late stage of metastasis.

The author writes well and eloquently about the interrelationships between philosophy, human nature, theology, and how tyranny can generally be averted or defeated by the virtues of wisdom and reason (and how those often seem to be sorely lacking in time periods which are marked by extreme partisanship and divisiveness). He builds up a cogent logical argument step-by-step and brick by brick. I worry that the people who *agree* with his philosophy will be the only ones who read this book. The ones who think Trump was a swell guy and got robbed in 2020 will slam it shut enraged after the first paragraph and read no further.

Even the most cursory examination of my online background will show that I'm dead center in his "demographic group": fully educated healthcare professional, somewhere politically left of Senator Bernie Sanders, bewailing the downward death spiral of public education and the lack of single payer healthcare in the USA. I heartily agree with everything Dr. Fiala has said in this book and see it as painfully obvious truth. In other words, I'm what Trump supporters disparage as "elitist" and refuse to engage. I'm the choir to whom Dr. Fiala is preaching. The sad thing is that the people who need to find and cultivate reason and objectivity are the very ones who will read the first pages of the preface and slam the book shut in outrage.

Five stars. I hope it gets a lot of traction, because we desperately need to stave off the emboldened and enraged fury of the alt-right worldwide. I fear that the people who need to read it won't ever see it.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.