"Fittest to Choose": Milton Against Celebrity

Abstract

abstract:Milton was concerned with the dangers of populism throughout his career, most notably in Eikonoklastes and The Readie and Easie Way as he took on the celebrity king, Charles I. Sometimes charged with being an elitist who disregarded the common man, Milton actually worried about the political backwardness that populism engenders and the threat it poses not only to the political life of the nation, but also to the capacity for human salvation. His solution was a domestic "nation-building" grounded in educational reform. This article highlights the dangers Milton apprehended in the allure of fame and in the difficulties of preparing citizens to choose wisely when faced with the partisan allure of celebrity politicians.