112 - Victor Davis Hanson: Revisionist History and the Dying Citizen

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The Dying Citizen. More particularly, they talk about the Ancient Greek origin of a flourishing egalitarian society centered around the notion of citizenship, the way this history has been subverted and recast, the perils of judging the past through the lens of the present, how citizenship is threatened in the United States today, and the nature of human progress. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show. 

Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com

Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show 

The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:18 Introduction

04:10 The Dying Classics

10:28 Ancient Greece and the Perils of Revisionist History

20:55 Don’t Judge the Past Against the Present

24:32 The Difference between Citizens and Residents

40:04 The Importance of Citizenship

47:37 On Our Obsession with Inequality

51:23 Is Humankind Making Progress?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.