Where Paideia is absent, Power gives birth to Barbarism.
History does not create monsters by accident.
It forges them within societies that confuse knowledge with diplomas, education with technical training, and leadership with demagoguery. In today’s era of political degeneration, two figures have emerged as global symbols of this confusion: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Understanding their rise and conduct cannot be confined to geopolitical analysis or psychological profiling. The root of the phenomenon is far deeper — anthropological and philosophical in nature.
The primary cause that most analysts of the two leaders’ nature and profane actions either failed to recognize or deliberately ignored is their total lack of Education and Cultivation.
Possession of an academic degree — from any institution and at any level — guarantees neither true education nor genuine cultivation.
In Greek thought, Education (Morphosis) does not mean the accumulation of information. It signifies transformation, inner formation, and the evolution of the human being into a higher moral and spiritual state.
Paideia, in the classical Greek understanding, means the shedding of barbarism, the cultivation of human-centered virtues, and the shaping of ethical character.
Putin and Trump are utterly devoid of both.
Their behavior, therefore, is no historical anomaly. It is the predictable outcome of uncultivated and uneducated individuals who — through manipulated and demagogic electoral processes — were elevated to leadership positions. Even worse, to the leadership of global superpowers.
These two monsters of contemporary world history, already judged by History’s incorruptible tribunal, stand as living proof of the timeless validity of ancient Greek wisdom, articulated most clearly by Plato.
The Athenian philosopher bequeathed to humanity the following insight:
A city can be governed with justice and wisdom only when
“philosophers rule, or rulers philosophize.”
That is, only when leaders possess the only true prerequisites for just governance:
Education and Paideia.
Qualities utterly absent from these two figures, who embody the corruption of the Mind, the barbarization of Ethics, and the modern political manifestation of Evil.
History does not punish out of revenge; it teaches out of necessity.
And its lesson is uncompromising: when societies abandon Education and Paideia, they hand power over to barbarism under a democratic disguise.
Putin and Trump are not anomalies; they are symptoms.
The true stake is not the downfall of individuals, but the return of the Human being to the center of political life.
Without Paideia, Democracy degenerates.
Without true Education, Power turns into a Monster.