Key Lessons From Plato’s Statesman
Plato looked on ruling as an art, and as with other arts, it has subject matters that only an expert can master. People who are sick turn to a doctor, people who need litigation turn to a lawyer, where there are crimes to be solved you’ll need detectives. As such, when we live in a democratic society, we need proficient individuals who are experts in the art of being a president/prime minister/chief in command. But as citizens, we seem content to let untrained individuals elected via populous demand govern our way of life and make decisions that affect generations to come, AKA Democracy.
For the longest time, we were content to let religion rule our lives as God is constant in a world of change. The rule of God is Absolute with any contradiction/amendment being a creation of man. Where a sophist intervenes with their imitation or wordplay, creates only chaos through ambiguity.
The Statesman, on the other hand, is closer to God and the Philosopher as they’re able to carry out the duties assigned to them without a selfish misinterpretation of what’s passed down by the Philosopher or God. The rule of the Philosopher is better and higher than the law of the Statesman because he is more able to deal with the infinite complexity of human affairs. But Mankind, in despair of finding a true ruler, is willing to permit any law or custom which will save them from the caprice of individuals. In the modern world, the amendments made to laws invariable benefit one class over the other. Back and forth, we change to please the citizens and create a form of tyranny of the masses.
Hence, the wiser course is that the Statesman be observed. And whoever, having the skill, should try to improve them, would act in the spirit of the law-giver AKA the Philosopher. But then, as we have seen, no great number of men, whether poor or rich, can be makers of laws. And so, the nearest approach to perfect government is, when men do nothing contrary to their written laws and national customs.
When the rich preserve their customs and maintain the law, this is called aristocracy, or if they neglect the law, an oligarchy. When an individual rules according to law, by the help of science or opinion, this is called a monarchy. But when he rules despite the law and is blind with ignorance and passion, he is called a tyrant. These forms of government exist because men despair of the true king ever appearing among them; as the natural world can never truly attain the perfection of heaven/the forms in as much the Statesman can never truly arrive the height of the Philosopher.
