[Music]
why do democracies have a pesky habit of
destroying themselves and there's
probably no better example of this
dangerous Trend than the birthplace of
democracy itself despite being hailed as
one of the greatest accomplishments of
ancient Greece it may come as a surprise
to many that several Greek philosophers
were actually incredibly skeptical about
democracy the legendary lawgiver of
Sparta luris vehemently rejected
democracy when someone demanded that
Sparta adopt a democratic system of
government he famously replied in
typical laconic fashion begin with your
own family another famous critic of
democracy was actually Socrates who had
every reason to be skeptical is we'll
learn why later in Plato's Republic
Socrates warns that democracy can end up
destroying an entire civilization and to
drive this point home he uses an analogy
imagine a state is like a huge ship on a
vast ocean this ship of State needs a
skilled Captain to navigate through
storms avoid obstacles and reach its
destination safely but the captain is
elected by popular vote and the decision
ends up being a disaster because rather
than electing someone who actually
understands how to Pilot a ship and
understands the art of seafaring the
passengers instead pick someone who is
popular persuasive and Promises nice
things to the people on board and just
like any ship that did this would
probably crash or sink so too would any
society so what was Socrates point with
this whole ship analogy is he advocating
for a strongman dictator no what
Socrates is saying is that the
passengers need to become crew members
if they hope for the ship of state to
reach its destination they need to elect
not just a competent Captain but they
themselves need to understand how the
ship functions after all even the most
competent Captain cannot pilot a ship on
its own without a capable crew but
unfortunately Athens would lack both a
competent captain and a capable crew
ironically one of the first victims of
this would be Socrates himself in 399 BC
he was put to death after an assembly
voted that he had been corrupting the
Youth of Athens Socrates fate should
have been a warning but instead the city
of Athens spent the next Century
elevating one political demagogue after
another until finally things came to a
head in 323 BC after news of the death
of Alexander the Great reached Athens
the city was eager to get revenge on
their bitter Macedonian Rivals fion an
admirer of Socrates had served Athens
for more than 50 years as a politician
and general he tried to warn the people
that while Alexander was dead the Army
he commanded was still alive but fion
was out voted and Athens started a war
with the world's sole superpower and
after being crushed in battle the
Athenians begged him to lead the
surrender negotiations fearing that the
macedonians would destroy the city fion
managed to save Athens but at the cost
of the city's Freedom Athens was placed
under direct Macedonian control and the
famed democracy of ancient Greece
vanished forever the story of Athens is
a warning sign for us today the downfall
of its Fame democracy in the city's
subjugation is proof that no political
system is perfect in fact it's only as
effective as the people who participate
in it perhaps that's why Thomas
Jefferson once warned that if the people
ever become inattentive to the public
affairs their political leaders will all
become wolves