Ahab’s Democratic Despotism

Will Morrisey on The political lessons of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick at City Journal.

"In the novel, we see all the characteristic types of persons dominated by a despot. Ahab is indeed a tyrant, effectively a usurper. The rightful owner of the whaling ship Pequod has hired a captain, not a monarch, and charged him with the task of hunting whales for their oil—but a mere contract in a commercial venture has no standing with an absolute ruler. Famously, Ahab has another mission, to which he has sworn himself and his sinister familiar, the mysterious Fedallah: to chase and kill the great white whale, the malevolent being that sheared off his leg during a previous voyage. None of his officers or crew has signed on for such a quest. Ahab will overawe and rule them by means of demagoguery, threats of force, and fraud, invoking, by turns, greed and terror."

#tyranny

Twilight of the Gods

'If we avoid mining his plays for punditry and sloganeering, the Bard may help us find answers to our own questions.'

Review by Spencer Klavan of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, edited by Jan H. Blits, and Antony & Cleopatra, by William Shakespeare, edited by Jan H. Blits, at the Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2019

#tyranny

The British Museum, the Roman Republic & more.

Roger Kimball's review of The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic, by Mike Duncan, is one of the items in the latest issue of of The Critic’s Notebook, from The New Criterion.

Anarchy in 'Great Books of the Western World'

While Anarchy is not one of the Great Ideas, that is, not one of the major topics in Great Books of the Western World, its entry in the Inventory of Terms lists:

Anarchy: see
     Democracy 2;
     Government 1a; and 5;
     Liberty 1b; and
     Tyranny and Despotism 3.

which refer to the following references within the set (2nd edition, 1990), by volume, author, and page(s).

Democracy 2. The derogation of democracy: the anarchic tendency of freedom and equality

5 Herodotus, 107–108
6 Plato, 408–414
8 Aristotle, 492, 512, 516, 523
21 Hobbes, 150–151, 273 33 Locke, 29
40 Mill, 298–299, 354–355
41 Boswell, 125, 127, 211
43 Hegel, 104, 390
43 Nietzsche, 481–482, 501–503, 522–523
44 Tocqueville, 130–144 esp 135–136, 281
47 Dickens, 159–160
58 Weber, 98–100 

 Government 1a. The origin and necessity of government: the issue concerning anarchy

New Testament: Romans, 13:1–8
5 Thucydides, 436–438
6 Plato, 44, 316–319, 663–667
8 Aristotle, 445–446, 475–476
11 Lucretius, 72–73
13 Plutarch, 638
14 Tacitus, 51
16 Augustine, 231, 414–415
18 Aquinas, 226–227
19 Dante, 52
20 Calvin, 420–421
21 Hobbes, 58, 77, 84–87, 91, 99–102, 109, 113, 159
24 Shakespeare, 535–536
25 Shakespeare, 109
28 Spinoza, 669–670
30 Pascal, 227–228
33 Locke, 4, 16, 25, 28–29, 44–55, 65, 75
34 Swift, 135–184
35 Montesquieu, 1–3
35 Rousseau, 333, 391–393
36 Smith, 347–349
39 Kant, 433–434
40 Federalist, 31, 36, 63, 65, 71–78 passim, 121–122
40 Mill, 302–303
43 Hegel, 127–128, 180–183
44 Tocqueville, 361
49 Darwin, 310, 321 

Government 5. The relation of governments to one another: sovereign princes or states as in a condition of anarchy

6 Plato, 788–790
8 Aristotle, 478
21 Hobbes, 86
34 Swift, 23–25, 149–150
35 Rousseau, 355
37 Gibbon, 520–521
39 Kant, 435, 449–458
40 Declaration of Independence, 1, 3
40 Articles of Confederation, 5–9 passim
40 Federalist, 29–259
40 Mill, 417–442
43 Hegel, 110–118, 153–154, 299–300, 379–382
44 Tocqueville, 218
58 Huizinga, 283–287 

 Liberty 1b. The independence of men and the autonomy of sovereigns in a state of nature or anarchy 

21 Hobbes, 84–87, 99
28 Bacon, 20
28 Spinoza, 669–670
33 Locke, 28, 44, 53, 54, 73–74
35 Montesquieu, 2
35 Rousseau, 342–345, 352, 353–355 passim, 356–357
39 Kant, 433–434, 435–436
43 Hegel, 69–70, 178–179
43 Nietzsche, 481
58 Frazer, 31–32
60 Lawrence, 148–157 

 Tyranny and Despotism 3.The choice between tyranny or despotism and anarchy

5 Herodotus, 23–24
13 Plutarch, 68–70, 525–526, 588–591
14 Tacitus, 51–52
21 Hobbes, 104, 112
33 Locke, 44–46, 56–57, 76–78
35 Rousseau, 356, 389, 433–434
40 Federalist, 45–47 passim, 66–78 passim
40 Mill, 344, 350–355 passim
44 Tocqueville, 164–165

#democracy #government #GreatBooksoftheWesternWorld #liberty #tyranny