Liberty
Letters
February 26, 2005
Plato #18
Blessed
Tolerance
The
'Virtue' of a Republic in
Decline
by Steve Farrell
Approximately two and a half millennia ago,
Plato, in his classic work, The Republic,
unveiled a more intimate look into our previously
discussed 'National Law of the Harvest;' that is,
Plato unveiled with precision and wit just what
happens, by and by, to the individual
'democratic man' when he foolishly, or by matter of
course, abandons "liberty in law" for "me first!"
and "anything goes!"
It's not a pretty sight. The 'democratic man' so
fixed on his beloved self interest as he is, and as
he is taught to be, is soon tyrannized by his own
lusts, and next it is he who is the tyrant:
first to his family, next to his fellows, next to
his church, and finally to his state -- that is, to
anybody and anything which stands in the way of his
many lusts. In the process, his faith, his morals,
his previously held opinions -- now classed as the
'dreams of youth' -- are overthrown by his late
'emancipation.'
Thus, a change in 'private' moral conduct, Plato
observes, at last, becomes very public
indeed.
The trouble starts when equality before the law
morphs into the bizarre belief that all moral
viewpoints are equally valid -- with these two
politically correct provisos: 1) Self-love and
self-indulgence must be ranked as the greatest of
rights, and 2) Toleration -- for every sort of
extreme -- must be placed upon a throne and
worshipped by one and all as the highest of all
virtues.
Such an equality! So very ancient! So very
modern!
Perhaps, the Western Classics, no longer taught
at our colleges and universities, have something to
teach us after all.
Let's give Plato a try and see.
The dialogue is between Socrates and Adeimantus;
Socrates speaks first:
- S. [T]he tyrannical man in the true
sense of the word comes into being when, either
under the influence of nature, or habit, or
both, he becomes drunken, lustful,
passionate[.] O my friend, is not that
so?
-
- A. Assuredly.
-
- S. Such is the man and such is his origin.
And next, how does he live?
-
- A. Suppose, as people facetiously say, you
were to tell me.
-
- S. I imagine, I said, at the next step in
his progress, that there will be feasts and
carousals and revellings and courtezans, and all
that sort of thing; [Self-]Love is the
lord of the house within him, and orders all the
concerns of his soul.
-
- A. That is certain.
-
- S. Yes; and every day and every night
desires grow up many and formidable, and their
demands are many.
-
- A. They are indeed, he said.
-
- S. His revenues, if he has any, are soon
spent.
-
- A. True.
-
- S. Then comes debt and the cutting down of
his property.
-
- A. Of course.
-
- S. When he has nothing left, must not his
desires, crowding in the nest like young ravens,
be crying aloud for food; and he, goaded on by
them, and especially by [self-]love
himself, who is in a manner the captain of them,
is in a frenzy, and would fain discover whom he
can defraud or despoil of his property, in order
that he may gratify them?
-
- A. Yes, that is sure to be the case.
-
- S. He must have money, no matter how, if he
is to escape horrid pains and pangs.
-
- A. He must.
-
- S. And as in himself there was a succession
of pleasures, and the new got the better of the
old and took away their rights, so he being
younger will claim to have more than his father
and his mother, and if he has spent his own
share of the property, he will take a slice of
theirs.
-
- A. No doubt he will.
-
- S. And if his parents will not give way,
then he will try first of all to cheat and
deceive them.
-
- A. Very true.
-
- S. And if he fails, then he will use force
and plunder them.
- A. Yes, probably.
-
- S. And if the old man and woman fight for
their own, what then, my friend? Will the
creature feel any compunction at tyrannizing
over them?
-
- A. Nay, he said, I should not feel at all
comfortable about his parents.
-
- S. But, O heavens! Adeimantus, on account of
some newfangled love of a harlot, who is
anything but a necessary connection, can you
believe that he would strike the mother who is
his ancient friend and necessary to his very
existence, and would place her under the
authority of the other, when she is brought
under the same roof with her; or that, under
like circumstances, he would do the same to his
withered old father, first and most
indispensable of friends, for the sake of some
newly found blooming youth who is the reverse of
indispensable?
-
- A. Yes, indeed, he said; I believe that he
would.
-
- S. Truly, then, I said, a tyrannical son is
a blessing to his father and mother.
-
- A. He is indeed, he replied.
-
- S. He first takes their property, and when
that falls, and pleasures are beginning to swarm
in the hive of his soul, then he breaks into a
house, or steals the garments of some nightly
wayfarer; next he proceeds to clear a temple.
Meanwhile the old opinions which he had when a
child, and which gave judgment about good and
evil, are overthrown by those others which have
just been emancipated, and are now the bodyguard
of [self-]love and share his empire.
These in his democratic days, when he was still
subject to the laws and to his father, were only
let loose in the dreams of sleep. But now that
he is under the dominion of love, he becomes
always and in waking reality what he was then
very rarely and in a dream only; he will commit
the foulest murder, or eat forbidden food, or be
guilty of any other horrid act.
[Self]Love is his tyrant, and lives
lordly in him and lawlessly, and being himself a
king, leads him on, as a tyrant leads a State,
to the performance of any reckless deed by which
he can maintain himself and the rabble of his
associates, whether those whom evil
communications have brought in from without, or
those whom he himself has allowed to break loose
within him by reason of a similar evil nature in
himself. Have we not here a picture of his way
of life?
-
- A. Yes, indeed, he said.
-
- S. And if there are only a few of them in
the State, the rest of the people are well
disposed, they go away and become the bodyguard
or mercenary soldiers of some other tyrant who
may probably want them for a war; and if there
is no war, they stay at home and do many little
pieces of mischief in the city.
-
- A. What sort of mischief?
-
- S. For example, they are the thieves,
burglars, cutpurses, footpads, robbers of
temples, man-stealers of the community; or if
they are able to speak they turn informers, and
bear false witness, and take bribes.
-
- A. A small catalogue of evils, even if the
perpetrators of them are few in number.
-
- S. Yes, I said; but small and great are
comparative terms, and all these things, in the
misery and evil which they inflict upon a State,
do not come within a thousand miles of the
tyrant; when this noxious class and their
followers grow numerous and become conscious of
their strength, assisted by the infatuation of
the people, they choose from among themselves
the one who has most of the tyrant in his own
soul, and him they create their tyrant.
-
- A. Yes, he said, and he will be the most fit
to be a tyrant.
-
- S. If the people yield, well and good; but
if they resist him, as he began by beating his
own father and mother, so now, if he has the
power, he beats them, and will keep his dear old
fatherland or motherland, as the Cretans say, in
subjection to his young retainers whom he has
introduced to be their rulers and masters. This
is the end of his passions and desires.
-
- A. Exactly.
-
- S. When such men are only private
individuals and before they get power, this is
their character; they associate entirely with
their own flatterers or ready tools; or if they
want anything from anybody, they in their turn
are equally ready to bow down before them: they
profess every sort of affection for them; but
when they have gained their point they know them
no more.
-
- A. Yes, truly.
-
- S. They are always either the masters or
servants and never the friends of anybody; the
tyrant never tastes of true freedom or
friendship.
-
- A. Certainly not.
-
- S. And may we not rightly call such men
treacherous?
-
- A. No question.
-
- S. Also they are utterly unjust, if we were
right in our notion of justice?
-
- A. Yes, he said, and we were perfectly
right.
-
- S. Let us then sum up in a word, I said, the
character of the worst man: he is the waking
reality of what we dreamed.
-
- A. Most true.
-
- S. And this is he who being by nature most
of a tyrant bears rule, and the longer he lives
the more of a tyrant he becomes.
Two millennia ago, Plato hit the nail on the
head; didn't he? 'Private' moral behavior goes
public. Liberty, defined by license, is not
liberty. Inevitably, we reap what we sow -- and so,
a culture defined by selfishness breeds a nation of
idlers and infidels, drunkards and dependents,
scoundrels and sluts, power-hungry politicians and
apathetic citizens, and by and by, a nation ripe
for tyranny.
It sounds all too familiar.
The hopeful news is, and Plato understood this,
the "anything goes" paradigm, and its accompanying
social anarchy, naturally spawns a revival of
conservatism. We see it today.
The challenging news is, and Plato understood
this as well, the political man knows all about the
probability of reactive conservatism; he, in fact,
plans on it, even prays for it. He knows 'knee
jerk' conservative movements can be and
often have been hijacked by opportunists and
revolutionaries, men who pedal a law and order
agenda in order to get elected, and so he is ready
to add to the historical record.
The bottom line, libertine, self-centered,
'privacy' protecting, 'tolerant' democracies,
unchecked by law and morality, undermine the
liberty they presume to proclaim and protect.
Making it reasonable and dutiful for political and
religious conservatives to stand up and say 'No! to
free-for-all tolerance!'
Bibliography
Plato. The Republic, Chapter IX.
Farrell
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