Post by Radrook Admin on Aug 8, 2019 18:21:16 GMT -5
Wisdom of Plato's Republic vs Present USA Politics
Democracy, or government by the citizens of a state via a voting system that allowed them to choose representatives via the vote, arose in Greece but not all Greeks agreed that democracy was the best type of government. Socrates, a famous ancient philosopher, was one of them. Plato, his most prominent student, wrote concerning a republic which Socrates had proposed, would be better than democracy. In his writings, he provides the reasons why Socrates condemned the system.
Basically, it was because democracy failed to provide wise leadership by permitting the totally unqualified to be chosen to rule. For example, some elected officials tended to be violent and their violent tendencies led the state into unnecessary bloody wars. Other elected officials were intensely selfish and used their positions to become wealthy or wealthier than they and been before at the cost of the people. Still others were governed by, hatreds motivated by envies, which seriously interfered with their leadership and promoted divisions within the state.
Furthermore, whether the candidate had the skills required to lead the state wisely, usually didn’t factor into their decision. Because of those reasons, Socrates suggested that a republic be set up where a selected group of people were trained to rule with wisdom by being trained to rule that way from infancy. Such individuals would have predispositions towards rationality and not towards emotional outbursts fueled by uncontrollable emotions.
With such a specialized group firmly in place, the danger of some unqualified buffoon, or groups of buffoons, being in charge of the state and leading it into disasters because they were voted into office by ignoramuses, would be impossible.
Had such a system been firmly in place in the USA during our recent elections, this situation that is presently causing all this social turmoil, would have never arisen. No, I don't agree with all aspects of Plato's republic, some of which affect the family. But his suggestion, that only those who are trained to govern wisely should be elected to govern, makes plenty of sense. The article, found at the website below, provides examples of buffoons that were indeed elected into office and all thee unnecessary mayhem they inflicted.