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Bandwagon Fallacy; or, Welcome to the Internet

January 28, 2018

Philosophy

citizen, democracy, fallacy, reason, social masses, social media

Being ignorant is bad, but being ignorant while pretending to know is even worse. I was browsing the topics of an online forum, and a thread on the democracy of ancient Athens drew my attention. One of the participants mentioned Plato’s praise of democracy as a form of government, and several others agreed.

Now, that in itself was surprising to see on a forum (and a Greek forum, to boot), since you’d expect someone bothering to comment on such a thread to know that Plato despised democracy. But there was worse in store for me: I came face-to-face with the Bandwagon Fallacy – or Appeal to Popularity. Welcome to the Internet.

Bandwagon Fallacy
Athens was the birthplace of democracy, Plato established the Academy in Athens, ergo, Plato loved democracy, right? Well, some guys on the Internet think so, therefore who am I (or Plato) to say otherwise…
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Free Time and Work: A Matter of Ideology

December 25, 2017

Society

citizen, democracy, economy, liberty, politics, success, suffering

Sometime ago I read an article about working conditions in Finland (that developed, modern, free Nordic country). It described how utterly depressed Finnish workers are, being forced to chase income in second or third part-time jobs, then returning home exhausted and crying. Needless to say, try to imagine the situation in places like the USA. No free time, only work. What’s the ideological connection between work and free time? Let’s take a closer look at systems that valorize and promote work versus free time, to get a better feel of the situation.

slave worker with no free time
“It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it”
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Being an “Idiot” and Civil Responsibility

December 19, 2017

Society

citizen, democracy, idiocy, ignorance, reason, responsibility

The words “idiot” and “idiocy” originate from the ancient Greek word ιδιώτης (“idiotes”), which has sadly lost its meaning in modern Greek. Nowadays, it means “a private employee” (i.e. in contrast to a public employee). But in ancient Greek, its meaning was far more intriguing: it meant someone so self-centered and absorbed with private matters, that he neglected the duties of citizenship: to discuss, vote, and participate in matters of public interest.

 
idiocy democracy
The grandeur of Athens materialized also because its citizens were not “idiots”
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