The citizens of an increasingly turbulent western civilisation have been craving a father figure for some time now: one man eager to occupy this role seems to be Mark Carney, the newly elected prime minister of Canada, whose victory celebrations seemed to be designed as a strong “World Dad” audition, complete with too-tight band hoodie worn while dancing in a way that only dads can call “grooving”.
In Plato’s Crito, the ancient Greek philosopher compared the state to the father and its citizens to children. Last summer Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, may possibly have been thinking of Plato at a Georgia campaign rally for Donald Trump.
Carlson compared the presidential candidate to an angry dad, with American citizens as a household
