Justice -- Early works to 1800; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Utopias -- Early works to 1800
thriving individuals, who can be squeezed when the drones have need of
their possessions; *565* there is moreover a third class, who are the
labourers and the artisans, and they make up the mass of the people. When
the people meet, they are omnipotent, but they cannot be brought together
unless they are attracted by a little honey; and the rich are made to
supply the honey, of which the demagogues keep the greater part
themselves, giving a taste only to the mob. Their victims attempt to
resist; they are driven mad by the stings of the drones, and so become
downright oligarchs in self-defence. Then follow informations and
convictions for treason. The people have some protector whom they nurse
into greatness, and from this root the tree of tyranny springs. The nature
of the change is indicated in the old fable of the temple of Zeus Lycaeus,
which tells how he who tastes human flesh mixed up with the flesh of other
victims will turn into a wolf. Even so the protector, who tastes human
blood, and slays some and exiles others with or without law, who hints at
abolition of debts and division of lands, *566* must either perish or
become a wolf--that is, a tyrant. Perhaps he is driven out, but he soon
comes back from exile; and then if his enemies cannot get rid of him by
lawful means, they plot his assassination. Thereupon the friend of the
people makes his well-known request to them for a body-guard, which they
readily grant, thinking only of his danger and not of their own. Now let
the rich man make to himself wings, for he will never run away again if he
does not do so then. And the Great Protector, having crushed all his
rivals, stands proudly erect in the chariot of State, a full-blown tyrant:
Let us enquire into the nature of his happiness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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