EPISODE 53 Diogenes: The Punk Rocker of Ancient Greece

History on Fire

Daniele Bolelli

Society & Culture

4.7 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2019

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“A Socrates gone mad.” Plato referring to Diogenes “Had I not been Alexander, I would have liked to have been Diogenes.” Alexander the Great "If I wasn't Diogenes, I would be wishing to be Diogenes too." Diogenes “There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers… To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.” Henry David Thoreau “I am a citizen of the world.” Diogenes “Free from what? As if that mattered. . . . But your eyes should tell me brightly: free for what?” Friedrich Nietzsche “He maintained, moreover, that nothing in life has any chance of succeeding without strenuous practice, which is capable of overcoming any obstacles.” Diogenes Laertius 2,400 years ago, long before punk rock was created, there was a man in ancient Greece who embodied the spirit of punk as much as anyone ever did. He was known as Diogenes The Dog. And Sid Vicious had nothing on him. Between the end of the Peloponnesian War, the bloody reign of the Thirty Tyrants, Socrates’ death… the times he lived in were wild ones, but Diogenes was considerably wilder than his historical context. As a master of frugality, he lived on the streets as a homeless philosopher inviting people to stop being slaves of their possessions. In this episode, we’ll see him clashing with the father of Western philosophy, getting busted for manipulating the currency, being the recipient of the good graces of celebrity sex workers, planting the seeds at the roots of Stoicism, defying Alexander the Great, getting kidnapped by pirates, rejecting nationalism, and pushing forward ideas that were as outlandish in Ancient Greece as they are today. The Amazons, the Oracle at Delphi, Game of Thrones, The Clash, The Temptations, The Princess Bride, and Nicki Minai also make an appearance in this episode. And before we wrap things up, we’ll consider the limitations of punk as a worldview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of History on Fire is brought to you by Luminar Media.
0:30.0	Let's go see History on Fire.
1:00.0	Once when my daughter was about five years old, I was driving with her from Northern California to Southern California.
1:07.0	And we are listening to some music, a clash to be precise.
1:13.0	The drive was long, flat and painfully boring, so the temptation to press the foot on the accelerator a little extra heavy was definitely strong.
1:26.0	And in this case, I just lost track of how fast I was going.
1:31.0	Hence the flashing lights in the rear view mirror, the stop on the side of the road, and the cop asking for license and registration.
1:40.0	As soon as the officer came by the window, my daughter began protesting.
1:45.0	It's not his fault, it's not his fault, she explained.
1:48.0	We are listening to a punk rocking song and he got a little too excited and forgot to check the speed.
1:55.0	The cop was oddly amused by the locosity of the tiny creature in the back, and he zoned us some sympathy which resulted in a lesser ticketing than I would have got.
2:08.0	The point of this story, if there is one, is to highlight how the energy of punk rock tends to make it impossible to stay within the rules.
2:18.0	And more often than not puts you in a collision course with authority, even though authority, in this case, was a fairly nice cop.
2:27.0	If someone mentions punk rock, the first things that come to mind are bands like the sex pistols, the clash or the Ramones.
2:36.0	Music historians would tell you that punk rock was born in the 1970s, some even stretched to see some proto-punk origins in the 1960s.
2:47.0	But today we'll play with a different type of punk rock.
2:50.0	We are going back about 2400 years in ancient Greece, and introduce to a character who was as punk as punk could get.
3:02.0	Of course, don't take the punk rock reference too literally, we're not talking about music here at all.
3:09.0	Theologianist was no musician.
3:12.0	What we're talking about here is the spirit of punk, the tenorgy at the roots of punk rock that seems to have had a major influence on some of my friends,
3:22.0	from the godfather of historical podcasting the one and only Dunk Hardin, to a legend of professional skateboarding, my good man Mr. Mike V.
3:34.0	Some of the cornerstones of punk are an allergic to authority, spirit of rebellion, a fiercely independent, do it yourself approach, and emphasis on authenticity, and an absolute devotion to individual freedom.
	...

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