President Donald Trump plans to host an MMA match at the White House in 2026. Like tech CEOs dawning the MAGA trucker cap, it symbolizes anti-elitism. Trumpism speaks to the part of our civic life that is estranged from us. It is a dark vision of Plato’s republic. “New right” intellectuals openly share a disdain for democracy and envision a ‘new feudalism.’ Plato’s ideal state, led by philosopher kings, comprises motivated, dutiful, and virtuous individuals in the context of economic equality. But, in our class-ridden society, we cling to our “belief” in individualism as we journey perilously into tyranny. Signaling to the fighting arts is a gesture against the privileged but serves to further alienate the underprivileged. 

Greeks discussed perennial human questions of the good life, duty, ethics, art, beauty, aesthetics and eroticism, comedy and tragedy. Plato considered questions of justice and virtue, all rooted in education. Plato described the human ‘soul’ (personality or mind) as divided into three parts: the philosopher (leaders; intellectuals with reason and virtue), the warrior (the citizen with discipline and strong sense of duty), and the worker (laborers with passions and mechanical skills). Individual souls are a mix, but each have strengths, and they align with occupations and relative degrees of virtue and civic mindedness. Society and politics, then, is a dialogue between virtuous individuals, each pursuing greatness; this is the “soul writ large” – the city and the soul are one.

Plato’s vision existed in the context of economic equality. Labor is the primary identity – not status and trophies in the form of wealth and divided neighborhoods. In school, careers rather than ‘tasks’ are learned, as well as virtue and character. To tie the community together, an ideology is learned, what he called the “noble lie” – clearly imperfect, but a helpful guide. Plato’s schools would teach that we are born of the earth, and are made of ‘metals’ that shape our social positions.

Today, our ideology is based on individualism and commodity exchange; we believe we are born as free individuals, and from our “individualism” we gain ‘merit’ and ‘character’ that justify our positions. Even if the systems or beliefs are imperfect, any other would be ‘unnatural.’ Thus, we must overcome, accept our positions, and pity those with whom haven’t embraced this ‘common sense.’

The ‘warrior’ is in modern school sports, now reflecting ‘class’ conceptions of athletic valor and virtue. Some studies suggest that participants in school sports are largely affluent, symbolizing the middle-class work ethic. Baseball, football, and track and field symbolize individual success and economic mobility (degrees, marriage, and property ownership). MMA and martial arts are culturally associated with underserved communities. Fighting arts do not have the same status and are associated with poverty, and low virtue, distraction or immaturity. Those told throughout their education, work life, or dating in a class-driven society they are less virtuous, and their position is a result of their individual ‘merit’ will find recognition elsewhere.

That Trump seeks to host an MMA match at the White House speaks to growing class division, and the alienation of intellectuals from workers. When Marjorie Taylor Greene posts videos of her CrossFit workouts, she shares the human experience of individual ambition, overcoming, and the ‘fighting spirit.’ The same virtues we learn in religious allegory and classic adventures and naturally apply to ordinary life. The legendary actress Meryl Streep once mocked fighting and MMA as “not the arts.” In training, the fighter embraces self-worth, aesthetics, and discipline then applied to all labors. The ability for someone to patiently focus under pressure, to evade, dip, intercept, and stay mentally alert is no small feat; like that of keeping time with musicians.

Greene and Trump campaign as ‘over the top’ characters, and we are compelled to laugh. The comedy is not poking fun at power but reveals our collective alienation from the rational part of ourselves and from public life. Trump erodes social ties by creating a sense of us and them, facts versus belief. Reason and logic in civic life are replaced by the irrational: Trump is saving society from the foreign violence of the ‘them,’ while celebrating the militancy and violence of ‘us.’

Reflecting on the Greeks in economic and civic life can be meaningful in modern society, returning to fundamental questions while reckoning with the extremes in Plato and market society. New conversations about virtue, goodness, and the purposes of education could break down class barriers, and those between intellectuals and leadership, artists and laborers. A new ‘lie’ could instead be a ‘virtuous belief’ in the common good, no matter how imperfect in practice. Virtues of duty and discipline can speak not to resentments, but a battle against inequality, an exploration of aesthetic beauty, vitality and eros, and the good life.

Chenjeri is a teacher in Klamath Falls