Name: Why Democracies Always Fail
Uploaded: 2023-12-16T03:35:04.000Z
Duration: 3 min 24 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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Why do democracies have a pesky habit of destroying themselves?

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And there's probably no better example of this dangerous trend than the birthplace of democracy itself.

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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, like kiss 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 as 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 what was Socrates Point with this whole ship analogy?

Is he advocating for a strong man dictator?

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.

Even the most competent captain cannot pilot a ship on its own without a capable crew.

But unfortunately, Athens would black 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 23 BC.

After news of the death of Alexander, the great reached Athens.

The city was eager to get revenge on their bitter macedonian rivals, Phocion, an admirer of Socrates had served Athens for more than 50 years as a famous politician and general.

He tried to warn the people that while Alexander was dead.

The Phocion was outvoted 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.

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 famed democracy and 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. 