Hell, I'd go right before Aristotle. The whole allegory of the cave from Plato/Socrates is most likely the first non-religious justification in western philosop

Hell, I'd go right before Aristotle. The whole allegory of the cave from Plato/Socrates is most likely the first non-religious justification in western philosophy (which was promulgated) which explains this "the people on the bottom deserve it and are correctly segmented" idea. Idiot farmers, who are not educated and don't see reality for how it is (only shadows on the wall), cannot be trusted to run your state. Only those who see reality for how it is (those who are dialectically educated in a school) should be anywhere near power. I think that even today, this notion of "you are low/stupid therefor we should not listen to you" is almost everywhere in the west.