New Books in Critical Theory The Cave and the Coalition: Philosophy, Populism, and the MAGA New Right
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Mar 7, 2026 
Laura Field, political theorist and author who studies American far-right intellectualism, maps the ideas shaping today’s MAGA new right. She traces Straussian readings, Catholic integralism, the manosphere, and Trump-era populism. The conversation uses Plato’s Cave to probe why thinkers return to politics and how philosophical radicalism becomes strategy.
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Cave As Image Of Education
- Plato's cave is primarily an image of education and its absence, showing how inherited conventions shape what people take for granted as truth.
- Laura K. Field emphasizes the cave targets social institutions like religion, media, and tradition, urging escape rather than merely critiquing individual texts.
Awakening Can Be Compelled
- The moment of being released in the cave allegory can be sudden and compelled, suggesting external forces or events trigger awakening, not only internal reflection.
- Eli Koretny highlights Plato's phrasing “suddenly compelled to stand up,” prompting questions about what forces spark philosophical conversion.
Personal Radicalization From Reading Plato
- Laura K. Field recounts how discovering Plato radicalized her, making her feel intellectually superior and distrustful of familiar institutions.
- She compares this to parents' fear of college radicalizing conservative children, showing philosophical study's real psychological effects.