Why are plebs so susceptible to demagogues?

In general, or Caesar? I wouldn't call Caesar a demagogue.

I'd say so. He was a populist anyway.

People like strong leaders, strong leaders don't always like their people.

Think of it this way. Imagine a strong leader willing to go out of his way to represent the common man and lead them against the elite that he believes are exploiting them combined with powerful oration. It's the most powerful force in politics.

>The politics of the future will be concerned with the art of moving the masses. -Napoleon

That doesn't mean he was a demagogue.

The Republic was diseased, he was the cure.

The Republic was diseased, Caesar was good at selling himself as the cure.

So good, in fact, that people still praise his name for killing the Republic two thousand years on. Truly the slickest propagandist of antiquity.

Is Donald Trump the reincarnation of Caesar?

>The Republic was diseased, he was the cure.

Sounds like something a demagogue would say.

No, but he's a symptom of the same problems that created Caesar.

people like feeling that they're not under threat from corruptible and disgusting elements in their society

People like Trump are exactly who Caesar believed was the enemy of the plebs.

I understand what both of you mean. Demagogue doesn't always = bad though the way I see it. By Caesar's time the Republic was already shaky having been through plenty of in fighting already. In death, those defending the Republic basically proved Caesar right.

same luxurious head of hair

Caesar was not a demagogue. Demagogues engage in demagoguery only, and to claim definitively that he was a demagogue, you would have to objectively prove that he did not believe the things he said and did.

Julius Caesar believed himself higher than the members of the patrician class. He believed this in such a profoundly strong way, that one could describe it as an almost religious conviction rather than common arrogance.
He lived his life in this way, and made decisions reflecting his political career in this way. After a while, those close to him and the people who loved him started to believe it too.

In some ways, one could appreciate his murder as his ultimate achievement in life. Brutally sacrificed in the most holy place of his religion - and ascended to godhood because of that murder. It was the ultimate proof to history that he was better than his peers, and the postmortem veneration and deification is the realization of that proof.

I wonder that if Julius Caesar had not been assassinated and had outlived his success, if he had declined before he died at the height of his power, if we would remember him only as a Sulla. Augustus might have gotten far in politics had Caesar not been killed, but he wouldn't have been the son of a god.

>why are people susceptible to promoting their own interests?

>demagogue is usually part of the elite but not very top
>wants more power
>panders to plebs who elites ignore
>plebs support demagogue thinking he aligns with their interests
>demagogue rises above established elite with pleb help
>betrays plebs when no longer necessary

tldr because the hope of improving their conditions through the demagogue

Good post Veeky Forumstorian.

If I were Caesar, I wouldn't have pardoned my enemies.

No, Marcus Licinius Crassus.

People would not be susceptible to demagogues if the status quo was not so stifling. It is only in stagnant times that people turn to demagogues.

>be poor
>dude says "support me and I'll fix your problems"
>what do I have to lose

They're most often the ones given the least access to power, and so are the most likely target for someone promising to bring them to power by circumventing the rigid system that's set against them by exploiting what access they do have - the threat of the mob and mass mobilization, both of which require skills common to a demagogue.