I wrote the below two years ago and in the last line I mentioned the FB will remind me of this rant and I will bore my readers with it again. Well true to itself FB reminded me of it today so here you go.
"Plato wrote The Republic, which is written as a collection of conversations of Plato's teacher Socrates. It gives insights into human behavior which is amazingly similar to today. Described in Books 8 and 9, Plato basically describes how 'Democracy' will eventually pave the road for 'Tyranny' as he exquisitely wrote;
"States are as the men are; they grow out of human characters.....Like State, like man."
Plato further described government going through FIVE STAGES:
"We count as one Royal and Aristocratical..." followed by "Timocratical, Oligarchical, Democratical, Tyrannical."
Plato's FIRST stage was called 'Royal' or "Aristocracy...whom we rightly call just and good." This is government by hard-working, virtuous LOVERS OF 'TRUTH' and 'WISDOM.' These responsible individuals know how to run farms and businesses, and they know how to run city government.
Aristocratical ruler is described as; "A ruler considers...always what is for the interest of his subject...and that alone he considers in everything which he says and does."
The SECOND stage, Plato called "Timocracy." This was a government run by LOVERS OF 'HONOR' and 'FAME, where Plato wrote:
"Now what man answers to this form of government... He is a lover of honor; claiming to be a ruler...Busy-bodies are honored and applauded..."
"The love of honor turns to love of money; the conversion is instantaneous."
"Because they have no means of openly acquiring the money which they prize; they will spend that which is another man's."
This turns into Plato's THIRD stage - an insider clique, a ruling class, called an "OLIGARCHY." These are LOVERS OF 'MONEY' and 'GAIN.' They seek money to get into office, then once elected they funnel money and favors to family, friends, constituents and supporters who in turn help them stay in power. The insider ruling class raises taxes on everyone except themselves. They pass laws, but exempt themselves.
In regards to this stage Plato wrote:
"They invent illegal modes of expenditure; for what do they or their wives care about the law? Their fondness for money makes them unwilling to pay taxes...And so they grow richer and richer... the less they think of virtue and the virtuous are dishonored..."
"Insatiable avarice is the ruling passion of an oligarchy..."
"And what are the defects? Inevitable division, two States, the one of poor, the other of rich men; and they are always conspiring against one another..."
"The rulers, being aware that their power rests upon their wealth, refuse to curtail the extravagance of the spendthrift youth because they gain by their ruin."
"They gain by the ruin of extravagant youth..."
"The ruling class do not want remedies; they care only for money, and are as careless of virtue as the poorest of the citizens. They hate and conspire against those who have got their property, and against everybody else, and are eager for revolution."
As frustration grows, the people finally throw out the oligarchs and set up the FOURTH stage - "DEMOCRACY."
Plato wrote;
"Next comes democracy and the democratic man, out of the oligarchical man..."
"From the least cause, or with none at all, the city falls ill and fights a battle for life or death. And democracy comes into power when the poor are the victors, killing some and exiling some, and giving equal shares in the government to all the rest..."
Plato continued:
"The great charm is, that you may do as you like; you may govern if you like, let it alone if you like; go to war and make peace if you feel disposed, and all quite irrespective of anybody else."
"Observe, too, how grandly Democracy sets her foot upon all our fine theories of education,--how little she cares for the training of her statesmen!..."
"Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike..."
"Freedom as they tell you in a democracy, is the glory of the State..."
Plato warned that unrestrained freedom would eventually lead to licentiousness.
"Can liberty have any limit? Certainly not...By degrees the anarchy finds a way into private houses...Citizens chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority, they will have no one over them...Such is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny...Liberty overmasters democracy...The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery...And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty... "
Plato warned that since the people have no experience running a government, they will follow the example of preceding leaders and yield to AVARICE. They will vote to spread the city's wealth around till the treasury is empty. Then they will vote to take money from the rich:
"Democracy of which the insatiable desire brings her to dissolution... Insatiable desire and neglect introduces the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny..."
"Does not tyranny spring from democracy?"
Plato described how unrestrained passions lead to financial irresponsibility. With not enough money to go around, bickering and fighting result, leading to chaos and anarchy. Then people will begin to look for someone to come along and fix this mess?
And that is the FIFTH stage - "TYRANNY."
Plato wrote;
"Last of all comes the tyrant...In the early days of his power, he is full of smiles, and he salutes every one whom he meets, making promises in public and also in private, liberating debtors, and distributing land to the people and his followers, and wanting to be so kind and good to every one...This is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector...Hinting at the abolition of debts and partition of lands, he begins to make a party against the rich..."
"...that they may be impoverished by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants and therefore less likely to conspire against him?..."
"And when a man who is wealthy and is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees, he flees and is not ashamed to be a coward..."
Plato explained that "the protector" then yields to AVARICE and uses his newly acquired power to target his political opponents:
"And the protector of the people, having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the blood of kinsmen; by the favorite method of false accusation he brings them into court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizen..."
"And if any of them are suspected by him of having notions of freedom, and of resistance to his authority, he will have a good pretext for destroying them..."
Plato continued:
"How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant?"
"He begins to grow unpopular...Then comes the famous request for a bodyguard, which is the device of all those who have got thus far in their tyrannical career ....And the protector of whom we spoke, is to be seen the over-thrower of many, standing up in the chariot of State with the reins in his hand, no longer protector, but tyrant absolute...The lion and serpent element in them disproportionately grows and gains strength..."
Plato described how the tyrant would keep power:
"The tyrant must be always getting up a war..."
"He is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader..."
And of course the attached photo is the cause of the above unleashed rant the real image from the days when America were spreading Democracy in Vietnam.....we are either on the road to Tyranny, or gathering from words of Plato we can perhaps say that we have already arrived.......something never seem to change.
May be two years from today, FB will remind me of this rant and how I bored everyone to tears
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