EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). We should only add one crucial thought to the main idea of the main lesson of this video: When Kapodistrias finally arrived in Greece after 1827 as the first Governor of the – not yet established – independent state, he suspended the Constitution and dissolved the Parliament, recognizing that the chaotic situation in a country that was still not independent from the Sultan and also the lack of education of the population would make “democracy” completely dysfunctional and render Greece easily manipulated by the “puppet masters” in London though their puppets and other self-interested demagogues. He was absolutely correct!! Especially because his first concern was to establish a solid educational system – and he did!!
Of course, the puppets of the British Empire (very similar to today’s puppets of the American “Deep State”) accused him of being “dictatorial”. And very much like today, regardless of the fact that Kapodistrias never had a Russian citizenship and passport and despite having submitted his resignation to the Czar from the Foreign Ministry in order to devote himself to Hellas, his mother country, he was viewed as “pro-Russian” by the Empire, just because he wanted to pursue Greece’s main interests and nobody else’s.
And now let’s watch the wonderful lesson…
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Niko,
Your article is very important, but I have an objection to your original title. I do not think that Socrates hated democracy. He was mainly a moral and epistemic critic of how democracy operated in Athens (his trial and execution show this tension). Thus, he didn’t hate democracy itself, but rather distrusted certain democratic practices. While he provided the intellectual critique of an immature democracy, Kapodistrias implemented a realistic, top-down strategy to create the conditions where a healthy democracy could actually survive.
I copied the title of the creator of this video as you can see. I was sure it would create questions and debate…
Indeed it creates questions and debate. :)