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32 - The Republic - Plato · Logic Library

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  Book eight, Part four. But what is the next step. The ruin
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  of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy, the same disease magnified and intensified by
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  liberty overmasters democracy. The truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes
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  a reaction in the opposite direction. And this is the case not only in
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  the seasons and in vegetable and animal life, but above all in forms of
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  government. True, the excess of liberty, whether in states or individuals,
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  seems only to pass into excess of slavery. Yes, the natural order,
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  and so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of
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  tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty, as we might
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  expect. That, however, was not, as I believe your question.
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  You rather desire to know. What is that disorder which is generated alike in
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  oligarchy and democracy, and is the ruin of both? Just so, he
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  replied, Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of
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  idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are the leaders, and the more
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  timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones some stinglers,
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  and others having stings. A very just comparison, these two classes are the
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  plagues of every city in which they are generated, being what phlegm and bile
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  are to the body. And the good physician and lawgiver of the state ought,
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  like the wise bee master, to keep them at a distance and prevent,
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  if possible, their ever coming in. And if they have anyhow found
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  a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out,
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  as speedily as possible. Yes, by all means, he said. Then,
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  in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us
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  imagine democracy to be divided, as indeed it is, into three classes.
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  For in the first place, freedom creates rather more drones in the democratic than
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  they were in the olycarcical state, that is true, and in the democracy
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  they are certainly more intensified, how so, because in the olocarcical state they
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  are disqualified and driven from office, and therefore they cannot train or gather strength,
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  whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power. And while
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  the Chino swort speak and act, the rest keep buzzing about the beamer,
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  and do not suffer a word to be said on the other side. Hence,
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  in democracies almost everything is managed by the drones. Very true, he
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  said. Then there is another class which is always being severed from the mass.
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  What is that? They are the orderly class, which in a nation
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  of traders is sure to be the richest. Naturally so they are the most
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  squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones. Why,
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  he said, there's little to be squeezed out of people who have little,
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  and this is called the wealthy class, and the drones feed upon them.
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  That is pretty much the case, he said. The people are a third
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  class, consisting of those who work with their own hands. They are not
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  politicians and have not much to live upon. This when, as sampled,
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  is the largest and most powerful class in democracy. True, he said,
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  But then the multitude is seldom willing to congregate unless they get a little honey.
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  And do they not share? I said? Do not their leaders deprive
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  the rich of their estates and distribute them among the people, at the same
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  time taking care to reserve the larger part of themselves. Why, yes,
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  he said, to that extent, the people do share, and the persons
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  whose property is taken from them are compelled to defend themselves before the people as
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  best they can. What else can they do? And then, although they
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  may have no desire of change, the others charge them with plausing against the
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  people and being friends of oligarchy. True, and the end is that when
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  they see the people not of their own accord, but through ignorance, and
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  because they are deceived by informers seeking to do them wrong, then at last
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  they are forced to become oligarchs. In reality they do not wish to be,
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  but the sting of their drones torments them and breeds revolution in them.
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  That is exactly the truth. Then come impeachments, and judgments and trials of
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  one another. True, the people have always some champion whom they set over
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  them and nurse into greatness. Yes, that is their way. This and
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  no other is their root from which a tyrant springs. When he first appears
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  above ground, he is a protector. Yes, that is quite clear.
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  How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he
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  does what the man is said to do in the tale of the Arcadian Temple
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  of Lychey and Zeus. What tale. The tale is that he who has
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  tasted the entrails of a single human victim, minced up with the entrails of
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  other victims, is destined to become a wolf. Did you never hear it?
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  Oh? Yes? And the protector of the people is like him,
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  Having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the
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  blood of kinsmen by the favorite method of false accusation. He brings them into
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  court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with
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  unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizens. Some he kills,
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  and others he banishes, at the same time, hinting at the abolition
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  of debts and partition of lands. And after this, what will be his
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  destiny? Must he not either perish at the hands of his enemies, or
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  from being a man become a wolf. That is a tyrant. Inevitably,
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  this I said, is he who begins to make a party against the rich
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  the same after a while he is driven out, but comes back in spite
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  of his enemies a tyrant full grown, that is clear. And if they
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  are unable to expel him or to get him condemned to death by a public
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  accusation, they conspire to assassinate him. Yes, he said, that is
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  their usual way. Then comes the famous request for a bodyguard, which is
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  the device of all those who have got thus far in their tyrannical career.
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  Let not the people's friend, as they say, be lost to them.
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  Exactly the people readily assent. All their fears are for him, they have
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  none for themselves. Very true. And when a man who is wealthy and
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  is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees this, then my
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  friend, as the oracle said, decreases by pebbly Herm's sure, he flees
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  and rests not and is not ashamed to be a coward. And quite right
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  too, said he, for if he were, he would never be ashamed
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  again. But if he is caught, he dies, of course, And
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  he, the protector of whom we spoke, is to be seen not larding
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  the plain with its bulk, but himself, the overthrower of many, standing
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  up in a chariot of state with the reins in his hand. No longer
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  protector but tyrant, absolutely no doubt, he said. And now let us
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  consider the happiness of the man, and also of the state in which a
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  creature like him is generated. Yes, he said, let us consider that
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  at first, in the early days of his power, he is full of
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  smiles, and he salutes every one whom he meets. He to be called
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  a tyrant who is making promises in public and also in private, liberating debtors,
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  and distributing land to the people, and as followers, and wanting to
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  be so kind and good to every one. Of course, he said,
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  But when he has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there
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  is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war
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  or other in order that the people may require a leader. To be sure,
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  has he not also another object, which is that they may be improverished
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  by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants,
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  and therefore less likely to conspire against him? Clearly, And if any
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  of them are suspected by him of having notions of freedom and of resistance to
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  his authority, he will have a good pretext for destroying them by placing them
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  at the mercy of the enemy. And for all these reasons, the tyrant
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  must be always getting up a war. He must now he begins to grow
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  unpopular an necessary result. Then some of those who joined in setting him up,
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  and who are in power, speak their minds to him and to one
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  another, And the more courageous of them cast in his teeth what is being
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  done. Yes, that may be expected, And the tyrant, if he
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  means to rule, must get rid of them. He cannot stop while he
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  has a friend or an enemy. He is good for anything. He cannot,
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  And therefore he must look about him and see who is valiant, who
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  is high minded, who is wise? Who is wealthy? Happy man?
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  He is the enemy of them all, and must seek occasion against them,
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  whether he will or no, until he has made a purgation of the state,
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  yes, he said, and a rare purgation, yes, I said,
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  not the sort of purgation which the physicians make of the body. For
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  they take away the worse and leave the better part. But he does the
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  reverse. If he is to rule. I suppose that he cannot help himself.
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  What a blessed alternative, I said, to be compelled to dwell only
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  with the many bard and to be by them hated, or not to live
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  at all. Yes, that is the alternative, And the more detestable his
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  actions are to the citizens, the more satellites, and the greater devotion in
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  them will he require suddenly? And who are the devoted band? And where
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  will he procure them? They will flock to him, he said, of
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  their owner, coord if he pays them by the dog. I said,
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  here are more drones of every sort and from every land. Yes, he
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  said, there are. But will he not desire to get them on the
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  spot? How do you mean he will rob the citizens of their slaves.
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  He will then set them free and a roll them in his bodyguard. To
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  be sure, he said, and he will be able to trust them best
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  of all? What a blessed creature? I said, must this tyrant be?
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  He has put to death the others and has these for his trusted friends.
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  Yes, he said, They are quite of his sort. Yes,
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  I said, And these are the new citizens whom he has called into existence,
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  who admire him and are his companions, while the good hate and avoid
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  him. Of course, verily, then, tragedy is a wise thing,
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  and Euripides a great tragedian. Why so? Why because he is the author
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  of the pregnant saying tyrants are wise by living with the wise, And he
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  clearly meant to say that they are the wise whom the Tyrant makes his companions,
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  Yes, he said, and he also praises tyranny as god like.
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  And many other things of the same kind are said by him and by the
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  other poets. And therefore I said to the tragic poets, being wise men,
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  will forgive us and any others who live after our manner if we do
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  not receive them into our state, because they are the eulogists of tyranny.
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  Yes, he said, those who have the wit will doubtless forgive us.
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  But they will continue to go to other cities and attract mobs and higher voices,
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  fair and loud and persuasive, and draw the cities over to tyrannies and
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  democracies. Very true. Moreover, they are paid for this and receive honor,
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  the greatest honor as might be expected from tyrants, and the next greatest
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  from democracies. But the higher they assent our constitution hill, the more the
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  reputation fail, and seems unable from shortness of breath to proceed further. True,
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  but we are wandering from the subject. Let us therefore return and inquire
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  how the tyrant will maintain that fair and numerous and various and ever changing army
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  of his If he said, there are sacred treasures in the city, he
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  will confiscate and spend them. And in so far as the fortunes of attainted
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  persons may suffice, he will be able to diminish the taxes which he would
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  otherwise have to impose upon the people. And when these fail, why,
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  clearly he said, then he and his boon companions, whether male or female,
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  will be maintained out of his father's estate. You mean to say that
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  the people from whom he has derived as being will maintain him and his companions.
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  Yes, he said, they cannot help themselves. But what do the
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  people fly into a pass? And of that? A grown up son ought
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  not to be supported by his father, but that the father should be supported
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  by the son. The father did not bring him into being or settle him
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  in life, in order that when his son became a man, he should
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  himself be the servant of his own servants, and should support him and his
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  rabble of slaves and companions, but that his son should protect him, and
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  that by his help he might be emancipated from the government of the rich and
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  aristocratic, as they are termed. And so he bids him and his companions
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  depart, just as any other father might drive out of the house a riot's
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  son and his undesirable associates by heaven, he said. Then the parent will
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  discover what a monstery has been fostering in his bosom, And when he wants
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  to drive him out, he will find that he is weak and his son
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  strong. Why you do not mean to say that the tyrant will use violence?
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  What beat his father if he opposes him? Yes, he will,
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  having first disarmed him. Then he is a parasite and a cruel guardian of
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  an aged parent. And this is real tyranny, about which there can be
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  no longer a mistake, as the saying is, the people who would escape
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  this smoke which the slavery of freemen has fallen into the fire which the tyranny
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  of slaves, Thus liberty getting out of all order and reason, passes into
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  the harshest and bitterest form of slavery. True, he said, very well?
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  And may we not rightly say that we have sufficiently discussed the nature of
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  tyranny in the manner of transition from democracy to tyranny. Yes, quite enough,
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  he said, end of Book eight