Frank Kogan

ok but there's surely one non-platitudinous distinction between world-of-ashlee and olympus, which is world-of-ashlee exists and is mortal not divine (or indeed fictional), so the question from whence does authority derive is subtly different -- "from us" in the greek instance makes a an important claim, viz not "from them" (the gods-AS-GODS), so it rules out one line of possibility

essentially i DO think we use world-of-ashlee and world-of-post-punk and world-of-_____ and world-of-______ much the way the greeks used the olympic soap opera, so yes, once you reach our version of the conversation, it is platitudinous to say "from us"; but "from us" ius a necessary step away from one line a greek discussion of piety could take (and a christian one still would)

my initial inclination was to say that socrates's approach pushes us from greek polytheism towards christian monotheism (ie in the opposite direction from where i want to move, and from where "from us" moves us) -- but that's not the case on the evidence of this dialogue alone, and may be wrong altogether (because even if we're making the distinctions and decisions, we're making them on the basis of things outside ourselves -- maybe the process plato calls "recognition of forms" is a good way to describe the secular mechanism also) (i tend to think not, but that may be by unfair association)