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31 - The Republic - Plato · Logic Library

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Book eight, Part three. And now what is their manner of life?
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And what sort of a government have they? For as the government is,
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such will be the man, clearly, he said, In the first place,
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are they not free? And is not the city full of freedom and
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frankness? A man may say and do what he likes, tis said,
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so, he replied. And where freedom is the individual is clearly able to
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order for himself his own life as he pleases. Clearly, then in this
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kind of state there will be the greatest variety of human natures there will.
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This then, seems likely to be the fairest of states, being like an
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embroidered robe which is spangled with every sort of flower. And just as women
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and children think a variety of colors to be of all things most charming,
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so there are many men to whom this state, which is spangled with the
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manners and characters of mankind, will appear to be the fairest of states.
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Yes, yes, my good sir, And there will be no better in
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which to look for a government. Why, because of the liberty which reigns
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there they have a complete assortment of constitutions. And he who has a mind
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to establish a state as we have been doing must go to a democracy as
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he would to a bazaar at which they seldom, and pick out the one
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that suits him. Then, when he has made his choice, he may
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found his state. He will be sure to have patterns enough, and there
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being no necessity I said, for you to govern in this state, even
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if you have the capacity, or to be governed unless you like, or
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go to war when the rest go to war, or to be at peace
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when others are at peace, unless you are so disposed, there being no
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necessity. Also because some law forbids you to hold office or be a die
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cast, that you should not hold office or be a die cast if you
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have a fancy. Is not this a way of life which for the moment
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is supremely delightful for the moment? Yes, And is not their you man
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to the condemned, in some cases quite charming. Have you not observed how
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in a democracy many persons, although they have been sentenced to death or exile,
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just stay where they are and walk about the world. The gentleman parades
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like a hero, and nobody sees or cares. Yes, he replied,
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many and many a one see too, I said, the forgiving spirit of
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democracy, and that don't care about trifles, and the disregard which she shows
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of all the fine principles which we solemnly lay down at the foundation of the
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city, as when we said that, except in the case of some rarely
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gifted nature, there never will be a good man who has not, from
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his childhood been used to play amid things of beauty and make of them a
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joy and a study. How grandly does she trample all these fine notions of
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ours under her feet, never giving a thought to the pursuits which make a
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statesman, and promoting to honor any one who professes to be the people's friend.
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Yes, she is of a noble spirit. These and other kindered characteristics
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are proper to democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of
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variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
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We know her well. Consider now, I said, what manner of
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man the individual is, Or rather, consider, as in the case of
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the state, how he comes into being very good? He said, Is
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not this the way? He is the son of the miserly and olycharchical father,
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who has trained him in his own habits exactly, and like his father
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he keeps under by false the pleasures which are of the spending and not of
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the getting sort, being those which are called unnecessary. Obviously, would you
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like, for the sake of clearness to distinguish which are the necessary and which
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are the unnecessary? Pleasures? I should are not necessary pleasures, those of
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which we cannot get rid, and of which the satisfaction is a benefit us,
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And they are rightly called so, because we are framed by nature to
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desire both what is beneficial and what is necessary, and cannot help it.
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True, we are not wrong. Therefore in calling them necessary, we are
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not. And the desires of which a man may get rid if he takes
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pains from his youth upwards, of which the presence moreover does no good,
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and in some cases the reverse of good. Shall we not be right in
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saying that all these are unnecessary? Yes? Certainly, suppose we select an
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example of either kind, in order that we may have a general notion of
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them very good? Will not the desire of eating, that is, of
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simple food and condiments, in so far as they are required for health and
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strength, be of the necessary class. That is what I should suppose the
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pleasure of eating is necessary in two ways it does as good, and it
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is essential to the continuance of life. Yes, but the condiments are only
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necessary in so far as they are good for health. Suddenly, and the
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desire which goes beyond this of more delicate food or other luxuries, which might
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generally be got rid of if controlled and trained in youth, and is hurtful
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to the body and hurtful to the soul in the pursuit of wisdom and virtue,
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may be rightly called unnecessary. Very true. May we not say that
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these desires spend and that the others make money, because they conduce the production,
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certainly, and of the pleasures of love and all other pleasures, the
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same holds good true. And the drone of whom we spoke was he who
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was served in pleasures and desires of this sort, and was the slave of
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the unnecessary desires, whereas he who was subject to the necessary only was miserly
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and olcarchical. Very true. Again, let us see how the democratical man
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grows out of the yolocarcical. The following, as I suspect, is commonly
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the process. What is the process when a young man who has been brought
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up as we were just now describing in a vulgar and miserly way, has
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tasted Drone's honey, and has come to associate with fears and crafting natures who
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are able to provide for him all sorts of refinements and varieties of pleasures.
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Then, as you may imagine, the change will begin of the olycccical principle
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within him into the democratical inevitably. And as in the city like was helping
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alike, and the change was affected by an alliance from without assisting one division
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of the citizens, so too the young man is changed by a class of
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desires coming from without to assist their desires within him that which is a kin
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and alike, again helping that which is akin and alike. Certainly, and
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if there be any ally which aids the olycocical principle within him, whether the
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influence of a father or of kindred, advising or rebuking him, then there
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arises in his soul affection and opposite faction, and he goes to war with
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himself. It must be so, And there are times when the democratical principle
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gives way to the olcharchical, and some of his desires die, and others
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are banished, a spirit of reverence enters into the young man's soul, and
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order is restored. Yes, he said that sometimes happens, and then again,
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after the old desires have been driven out, fresh ones spring up,
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which are akin to them, And because he their father does not know how
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to educate them, waxs fierce and numerous. Yes, he said that is
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apt to be the way. They draw him to his old associates, and
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holding secret intercourse with them, breed and multiply in him. Very true.
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At length they seize upon the citadel of the young man's soul, which they
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perceive to be void of all accomplishments and fair pursuits and true words, which
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make their abode in the minds of men who adhere to the gods, and
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are the best guardians and sentinels. None better. fALS and boastful conceits and
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phrases mount upwards and take their place. They are certain to do so.
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And so the young man returns into the country of the lotus eaters and takes
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up his dwelling there in the face of all men, And if any help
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be sent by his friends to the oligarchal part of him. The aforesaid vain
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conceits shut the gait of the king's fastness, and they will neither allow the
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embassy itself to enter. Nor if private advisers offer the fatherly counsel of the
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aged, will they listen to them or receive them. There is a battle,
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and they gain the day. And then modesty, which they call silliness,
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is ignominiously thrust into exile by them, and temperance, which they nickname
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unmanliness, it trampled in the mire and cast forth. They persuade men that
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moderation and orderly expenditure are vulgarity and meanness, And so, by the help
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of a rebbel of evil appetites, they drive them beyond the border. Yes,
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with a will. And when they have emptied and swept clean the soul
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of him who is now in their power, and who is being initiated by
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them in great mysteries, the next thing is to bring back to their house
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insolence and anarchy, and waste and impudence in bright array, having garlands on
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their heads, and a great company with them, hymning their praises and calling
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them by sweet names. Insolence they term breeding and anarchy, liberty and waste,
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magnificence and impudence courage, And so the young man passes out of his
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original nature, which is trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom
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and libertinism of useless and unnecessary pleasures. Yes, he said, the change
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in him is visible enough. After this he lives on spending his money and
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labor and time on unnecessary pleasures, quite as much as unnecessary ones. But
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if he be fortunate and is not too much disordered in his wits, when
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years have elapsed and the heyday of passion is over, supposing that he then
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re admits into the city some part of the exiled virtues, and does not
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wholly give himself up to their successors. In that case, he balances his
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pleasures and lives in a sort of equilibrium, putting the government of himself into
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the hands of the one which comes first and wins the turn, and when
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he has had enough of that, then into the hands of another. He
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despises none of them, but encourages them all equally. Very true, he
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said, neither does he receive or let pass into the fortress any true word
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of advice. If any one says to him that some pleasures are the satisfactions
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of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he
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ought to use and honor some, and chastise and master the others. Whenever
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this is repeated to him, he shakes his head and says that they are
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all alike, and that one is as good as another. Yes, he
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said, that is the way with him. Yes, I said. He
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lives from day to day, indulging the appetite of the hour, and sometimes
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he is leapt in drink and strains of the flute. Then he becomes a
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water drinker and tries to get thin. Then he takes a turn at gymnastics,
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sometimes idling and neglecting everything, then once more living the life of a
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philosopher. Often he is busy with politics and starts to his feet and says
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and does whatever comes into his head. And if he is amorous of any
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one who is a warrior, off he is in that direction, or of
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men of business, wants more, And that his life has neither law nor
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order, and this distracted existence he terms joy and bliss and freedom, and
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so he goes on. Yes, he replied, he is all liberty and
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equality. Yes, I said. His life is motley and manifold, and
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an epitome of the lives of many. He answers to the state, which
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we described as fair and spangled. And many a man and many a woman
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will take him for their pattern, and many a constitution, and many an
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example of manners is contained in him. Just so, let him then be
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set over against democracy. He may truly be called the democratic man. Let
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that be his place, he said. Last of all comes the most beautiful
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of all man and state, alike, tyranny and the tyrant. These we
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have now to consider quite true, he said, Say, then, my
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friend, in what manner does tyranny arise? That it has a democratic origin?
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Is evident clearly? And does not tyranny spring from democracy in the same
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manner as democracy from olacarchy? I mean, after a sort, how,
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the good which olacarchy proposed to itself, and the means by which it was
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maintained, was excess of wealth. Am I not right? Yes? And
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the insatiable desire of wealth, and the neglect of all other things for the
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sake of money getting was also the ruin of olcarchy. True, And democracy
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has her own good, of which the insatiable desire brings her to dissolution.
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What good freedom? I replied, which, as they tell you, in
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a democracy, is the glory of the state, And that therefore, when
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a democracy alone, will the freemen of nature deign to dwell. Yes,
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the saying is in everybody's mouth. I was going to observe that the insatiable
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desire of this and the neglect of other things, introduces the change in democracy
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which occasions a demand for tyranny. How So, when a democracy which is
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thirsting for freedom, has evil cup bearers presiding over the feast, and has
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drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then unless her rulers are
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very amenable and give a plentiful draft, she calls them to account and punishes
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them and says that they are cursed allar carcs. Yes, he replied,
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a very common occurrence, Yes, I said, And loyal citizens are insultingly
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termed by her slaves who hug their chains and men of naught. She would
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have subjects who are like rulers, and rulers who are like subjects. These
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are men after her own heart, whom she praises and honors, both in
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private and public. Now in such a state can liberty have any limit,
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Certainly not by degrees. The anarchy finds a way into private houses and ends
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by getting among the animals and infecting them. How do you mean. I
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mean that the father grows accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and
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to fear them. And the son is on a level with his father,
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he having no respect or reveren for either of his parents, and this is
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his freedom. And the metic is equal with the citizen, and the citizen
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with the metic, and the stranger is quite as good as either. Yes,
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he said, that is the way. And these are not the only
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evils, I said, there are several lesser ones in such a state of
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society. The master fears and flatters his scholars, and the scholars despise their
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masters, and tutors. Young and old are all alike. And the young
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man is on a level with the old and is ready to compete with him
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in word or deed. And old men condescend to the young, and are
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full of pleasantry and gaiety. There are loath to be thought morose and authoritative,
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and therefore they adopt the manners of the young. Quite true, he
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said. The last extreme of popular liberty is when the slave bought with money,
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whether male or female, is just as free as his or her purchaser.
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Nor must I forget to tell of the liberty and equality of the two
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sexes in relation to each other. Why not, as Escla says, utter
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the word which rises to our lips. That is what I am doing,
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I replied, And I must add that no one who does not know would
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believe how much greater is the liberty with the animals who are under the dominion
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of man have in a democracy than in any other state. For truly,
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the she dogs, as the proverb says, are as good as their she
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mistresses. And the horses and asses have a way of marching along with all
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the rights and dignities of freemen. And they will run at anybody who comes
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in their way if he does not leave the road clear for them. And
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all things are just ready to burst with liberty. When I take a country
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walk, he said, I often experience what you describe. You and I
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have dreamt the same thing. And above all, I said, and as
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the result of all, see how sensitive the citizens become. They shave impatiently
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at the least touch of authority, and at length, as you know,
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they cease to care even for the laws written or unwritten. They will have
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no one over them. Yes, he said, I know it too well.
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Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning,
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out of which springs tyranny. Glorious indeed, he said. End of
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Book eight, Part three,