Bøger af Dimitris Michalopoulos

Essay from the year 2023 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the Ancient World, , language: English, abstract: The "Revolt of the Masses" commenced long before the twentieth century. And the only remedy to the ochlocratic/plutocratic democracy of our days is the implementation of the Platonic Polity. For unless "wisdom joins the political power", as the great Athenian philosopher has explained, the suffering of the humankind will never end. Today, Platös political philosophy is more relevant than ever. Our world is ruled by a more or less ¿occult government¿ marked by ¿nepotistic plutocracy¿ and the consequent flagrant corruption. And this government exercises power thanks to support provided to them by all sorts of real or imaginary oppressed. And their method is simple, very simple. There is a huge difference between the common man and the man who is able to think. Yet, in the framework of today¿s plutocratic democracy everyone, regardless of his origin, education and skills, is regarded as a human ¿truly having his mind at work¿ and accordingly entitled to have opinion on political matters. Usually, moreover, this very regime is labelled as ¿platonic¿, but it is not. As a matter of fact, it is a perversion of Platonism. For it recognizes the problems that plague humankind today (overpopulation, environmental pollution, etc), but tries to solve them in a wrong way. According to Plato, nepotism and plutocracy bring about the destruction of the State.

During the Ottoman rule of the Greek Lands, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as the janissaries, proved to be the mainstays of the Padishah's throne. The "devshirme", however, was abolished in the mid-eighteenth century and accordingly, the Janissary corps became a breeding ground of trouble and anarchy. The Christians' forcibly recruited children eventually substituted the Padishah for their father and their soldier mates for their relatives. Yet, that was not the case with the Moslems by whom they were replaced. The latter did maintain family bonds and liked better to promote their own interests instead of defending the "Devlet" (State)... The subsequent crisis reached the climax during the reign of Mahmud II (1808-1839), who had the -brilliant- idea to substitute the ¿ Greeks for the Janissaries!The relevant story of Osman Pasha the Strangler , who was a no other than the senior archimandrite of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate, disguised as a Pasha by order of Padishah, is still well-known on the island of Crete!

In 1806 an anonymous Greek book called for a republican government, patterned on that of the young United States, to be established in Greece. The book's author, Count John Capo d'Istria, was also in touch with another inspirational power, Russia. In this revelatory new book, Dimitris Michalopoulos follows Capo d'Istria's career.

Scientific Study from the year 2014 in the subject History - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936) is an emblematic figure in the History of Modern Greece, for he is regarded as the champion of parliamentary democracy and of Greek irredentism - in short, a great statesman. Even the 1922 Greek Catastrophe in Asia Minor is ascribed to his political foes, who, were accordingly executed in November 1922. That is why it is a difficult and dangerous task to sort out the truth from the relevant myth. No amazement is to be expressed by that. In fact, whenever politics and History are intermixed, History suffers at the hands of politics and not politics at the hands of History. Consequently, discovering the truth implies reconsideration of History and perhaps coping with the Future on a basis quite different from the one hitherto. Still, voluntarily or not, this is the very mission of this book.