My Republic.Warning

—Who says being a nerd is not a real job? It’s just not for everybody—

Here’s a thought we need to carry with us the whole way through the examining of Republic (especially when you are a not so rich nerd like me):

There is a great advantage to have to be an ancient Greek if you’re a geek, and vice versa.

The very fact that one’s a Greek geek like Socrates only means one thing: he’s super rich.

Not just financially abundant, but socially privileged.

Not to mention in a small city like Athens, where everybody knows everybody, you can imagine you being a mumbling bookish geek, chicks will look at you as if looking at a Warren Buffett living inside Brad Pitt’s body holding Steven Jobs’ job. (What? Did you just say that Barack Obama is the leader of free world? Are you kidding me? What are you? Living in the 50s?)

• We don’t have this kind of advantage now. 
• Think twice before you pickThe Republic, and stop caring about which celebrity just gets divorced and step upon the path of achieving ultimate nerdity.
• (caring about celebrity’s divorce is very important for being normal, and stopping doing it is the reason nerds suffer from small talks) 

It’s not that a poor ancient Greek didn’t have the brain to be a nerd. It’s just that they could not afford to be.

Nowadays if you want to be a nerd buried in books, you could always pull purse strings, or pull sweatpants strings (that’s what we say in Chinese), if you have any to pull, like living in someone else’s basement or something.

But back in ancient Greece, books and education were expensive, (internet still took a few years to come along), more importantly, usually they were exclusive to the socially privileged. As a result, if you’re poor, you are doomed to be ignorant and supposed to sweep the other’s basement, not live in it.

• One of the main points of Republic is how to help the underprivileged fulfill their possibilities.

So, BEAR IN MIND:

Socrates didn’t become the ancient’s Elvis because he was a sexy nerd. He became a sexy nerd because he was the ancient’s Elvis.

If you are in one of the following situations, stay away from Republic:

• If you are a bookworm aspiring to learn the nature of human so that you can milk it by becoming some sort of Wall Street killing master, read Liar’s Poker or Snowball, don’t waste your time on Republic.
• If you are a high school dork, desperate to find some ways to outfox your school’s quarterback in the same way Socrates is going to trick the Po-mac dude, so that you can ask one of the cheerleaders out, read Neil Strauss’s The Game. 
• (Or, just study harder, go to business school, where chicks are way hotter and more interesting. At least they appear to listen to you when you’re talking.)

Republic is by essence a book about a bunch of old fat cats, while bored to death, playing Monday morning quarterback, only they didn’t just focus on sports, but mostly politics.

But if you are a poor nerdy kido believing in the passion within and trying to figure out who you are, what you can be, and hoping you can one day make the world a better place, Republic is just the book for you.

Reading Republic is going to be fun, frustrating and fucking painstaking. ‘Cause it’s going to be the same feeling when you are making a difference in the world.