Arendt on the break in ideas and the break in history
Plato's cave created a separation between philosophy and human affairs that was encouraged by Aristotle but regretted by Socrates. Arendt sees the rise of modernism in the 19th century as creating the ground in which the weed of Totalitariansim could take root. It did this by untethering our adherence to past intellectual authorities, making us vulnerable to new, human-created ideologies and regimes. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Marx all independently recognised this vulnerability, but were powerless to prevent the consequences. Her description of how this unfolded is as follows. Since antiquity, ideas of how we should live together had been devised by political philosophers in contemplation and at a distance from human affairs. Truths would be revealed to philosophers and people would go along with their prescription, unknowingly accepting the intellectual authority of the philosopher king. This hierarchy carried over to religion, where revealed truths also held sway. With the arr...