Opinion 106

The Romans punished parricide by sewing the guilty into a sack with a rooster, a serpent, a dog and a monkey, and then throwing that unfortunate bundle into the sea.

Opinion 105

He looked at the glass of whiskey on the counter with the same look a puppy gives his master when he needs to go outside. Ah, but whiskey is a harsh master!

Opinion 104

Plato and American Oligarchy

Polemarchus: And what kind of constitution would you call oligarchy?

Socrates: The constitution based on a property assessment, in which the rich rule, and the poor man has no share in ruling.

Polemarchus: What is it like?

Socrates: The treasure house filled with gold, which each possesses, destroys the constitution. First, they find ways of spending money for themselves, then they stretch the laws relating to this, then they and their wives disobey the laws altogether....from there they proceed further into money-making, and the more they value it, the less they value virtue. Or aren't virtue and wealth so opposed that if they were set on scales, they'd always incline in opposite directions?

Polemarchus: That's right.

Socrates: So when wealth and the wealthy are valued or honored in a city, virtue and good people are valued less....Then, in the end, victory-loving and honor-loving men become lovers of making money, or money-lovers. And they praise and admire wealthy people and appoint them as rulers, while they dishonour poor ones....what would happen if someone were to choose the captains of ships by their wealth, refusing to entrust the ship to a poor person even if he was a better captain?

Polemarchus: They would make a poor voyage of it.

(Later on) Socrates:...of necessity it isn't one city but two - one of the poor and one of the rich - living in the same place and always plotting against one another.

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I've edited down a rather large discussion towards the end of Plato's Republic concerning a state's decline into oligarchy. A few thoughts:

-First, an American cannot but think of America's current political mess. Particularly the fact that at this point, only the rich are allowed to pilot the ship, despite the fact that, by and large, they appear to be hopeless idiots.

-One would have to disagree, however, with Socrates' last statement, namely that they poor and rich are "always plotting against one another". Let's be honest: the poor in these United States don't plot against the rich, rather they sloppily and often mindlessly plot to become rich, or at least to imitate some of the marks of the rich. In this case, the rich have completely neutered the poor by producing from them hopeless imitation rather than righteous indignation.

-Of course, we must also admit that Socrates is describing a descent into oligarchy from aristocracy. His ideal city is not a democracy, nor is it some Marxist utopia (though it does share a few common threads). This actually seems somewhat fitting as far as the States are concerned, as without a doubt the founders of this nation considered themselves to be and actually were the aristocracy of the thirteen colonies. These were educated, land-owning men who read their Classics and knew they were in the upper crust. This begs the question as to whether aristocracy can ever not slide into oligarchy. Clearly in our case it has.

Opinion 103

A Prayer for Today:

Good Lord,
I'm tired
I'm going to die
Lord, remember that I had good intentions
Okay, sometimes I had good intentions

Opinion 102

Run Run Run don't stop Run Run