#145: The Crisis of Competence: When Politics Becomes Performance Art (Plato's Republic, Book 6)

About this episode

The episode discusses the incompetence of leaders and references Socrates' metaphor of the Ship of Fools from Plato's Republic.

Why are we led by incompetent people? Look at the news. Look at Congress. Look at the corporate boardrooms. Do you see "Wisdom"? Or do you see a circus? It feels like the world is being run by people who are either actively malicious or completely asleep at the wheel. And you are stuck in the passenger seat, screaming at the windshield. In Book VI of The Republic, Socrates stops being polite and drops the most savage political metaphor in history: The Ship of Fools. He describes a ship where ...

People in this episode

Host: David D. Hopkins, PhD

Topics covered

• politics
• competence
• performance art
• Socrates
• Plato's Republic
• Ship of Fools

Keywords

• incompetence
• politics
• Socrates
• Plato
• Ship of Fools
• leadership
• performance art

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Congress

Books & works: Plato's Republic

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