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A lot of people didn't think or that though. So many people would prefer to yell from the sidelines evey now and then about how politicians are all the same an

A lot of people didn't think or that though. So many people would prefer to yell from the sidelines evey now and then about how politicians are all the same and don't reflect the will of the people. How many of them have actually joined a political party p ran for office and even _tried_ to get a seat at the table.

sokoloff 7y ago
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” — Plato
- yesenadam 7y ago
  Didn't at all sound like Plato so I checked. I guess it's this (my italics) : “Well, then,” said I, “that is why the good are not willing to rule either for the sake of money or of honor. They do not wish to collect pay openly for their service of rule and be styled hirelings nor to take it by stealth from their office and be called thieves, nor yet for the sake of honor, for they are not covetous of honor. So there must be imposed some compulsion and penalty to constrain them to rule if they are to consent to hold office. That is perhaps why to seek office oneself and not await compulsion is thought disgraceful. But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule. It is from fear of this, as it appears to me, that the better sort hold office when they do, and then they go to it not in the expectation of enjoyment nor as to a good thing, but as to a necessary evil and because they are unable to turn it over to better men than themselves or to their like. - Republic, I 347. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D347b http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    Given that Plato didn't originally write in English, it seems fair to say that's a "more or less within the margin of error" quote of his?

sokoloff 7y ago

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” — Plato

yesenadam 7y ago
Didn't at all sound like Plato so I checked. I guess it's this (my italics) : “Well, then,” said I, “that is why the good are not willing to rule either for the sake of money or of honor. They do not wish to collect pay openly for their service of rule and be styled hirelings nor to take it by stealth from their office and be called thieves, nor yet for the sake of honor, for they are not covetous of honor. So there must be imposed some compulsion and penalty to constrain them to rule if they are to consent to hold office. That is perhaps why to seek office oneself and not await compulsion is thought disgraceful. But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule. It is from fear of this, as it appears to me, that the better sort hold office when they do, and then they go to it not in the expectation of enjoyment nor as to a good thing, but as to a necessary evil and because they are unable to turn it over to better men than themselves or to their like. - Republic, I 347. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D347b http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...
- sokoloff 7y ago
  Given that Plato didn't originally write in English, it seems fair to say that's a "more or less within the margin of error" quote of his?