The Sleepwalkers (23 page)

The
political
reforms
suggested
by
them
concern
us
only
insofar
as
they
indicate
the
unconscious
bias
which
permeates
their
cosmology;
but
in
this
context,
they
are
relevant.
Plato's
Utopia
is
more
terrifying
than
Orwell's
1984
because
Plato
desires
to
happen
what
Orwell
fears
might
happen.
"That
Plato's
Republic
should
have
been
admired,
on
its
political
side,
by
decent
people,
is
perhaps
the
most
astonishing
example
of
literary
snobbery
in
all
history,"
remarked
Bertrand
Russell.
⁵
In
Plato's
Republic
,
the
aristocracy
rules
by
means
of
the
"noble
lie",
that
is,
by
pretending
that
God
has
created
three
kinds
of
men,
made
respectively
of
gold:
the
rulers,
silver:
the
soldiers,
and
base
metals:
the
common
man.
Another
pious
lie
will
help
to
improve
the
race:
when
marriage
is
abolished,
people
will
be
made
to
draw
mating-lots,
but
the
lots
will
be
secretly
manipulated
by
the
rulers
according
to
the
principles
of
eugenics.
There
will
be
rigid
censorship;
no
young
person
must
be
allowed
to
read
Homer
because
he
spreads
disrespect
of
the
gods,
unseemly
merriment,
and
the
fear
of
death,
thus
discouraging
people
from
dying
in
battle.

Aristotle's
politics
move
along
less
extreme,
but
essentially
similar
lines.
He
criticizes
some
of
Plato's
most
provocative
formulations,
but
not
only
does
he
regard
slavery
as
the
natural
basis
of
the
social
order
–
"the
slave
is
totally
devoid
of
any
faculty
of
reasoning"
⁶
;
he
also
deplores
the
existence
of
a
"middle"
class
of
free
artisans
and
professional
men,
because
their
superficial
resemblance
to
the
rulers
brings
discredit
on
the
latter.
Accordingly,
all
professionals
are
to
be
deprived
of
the
rights
of
citizenship
in
the
Model
State.
It
is
important
to
understand
the
source
of
this
contempt
of
Aristotle
for
artisans,
craftsmen
architects,
engineers
and
the
like
–
by
contrast,
say,
to
the
high
esteem
in
which
an
Eupalinos,
the
tunnel-builder,
had
been
held
in
Samos.
The
point
is
that
Aristotle
believed
them
no
longer
to
be
necessary,
because
applied
science
and
technology
had
already
completed
their
task
.
Nothing
further
need,
or
could,
be
invented
to
make
life
more
comfortable
and
enjoyable,
because
"nearly
all
requisites
of
comfort
and
social
refinement
have
been
secured"
and
"everything
of
these
kinds
has
already
been
provided."
⁷
Pure
science
and
philosophy
"which
deal
neither
with
the
necessities
nor
with
the
enjoyment
of
life"
only
arose,
in
Aristotle's
view,
after
the
practical
sciences
had
done
all
that
they
can
ever
do,
and
material
progress
had
come
to
a
halt.

Even
these
cursory
remarks
may
indicate
the
general
mood
underlying
these
philosophies:
the
unconscious
yearning
for
stability
and
permanence
in
a
crumbling
world
where
"change"
can
only
be
a
change
for
the
worse,
and
"progress"
can
only
mean
progress
toward
disaster.
"Change"
for
Plato
is
virtually
synonymous
with
degeneration;
his
history
of
creation
is
a
story
of
the
successive
emergence
of
ever
lower
and
less
worthy
forms
of
life
–
from
God
who
is
pure
self-contained
Goodness,
to
the
World
of
Reality
which
consists
only
of
perfect
Forms
or
Ideas,
to
the
World
of
Appearances,
which
is
a
shadow
and
copy
of
the
former;
and
so
down
to
man:
"Those
of
the
men
first
created
who
led
a
life
of
cowardice
and
injustice
were
suitably
reborn
as
women
in
the
second
generation,
and
this
is
why
it
was
at
this
particular
juncture
that
the
gods
contrived
the
lust
for
copulation."
After
the
women
we
come
to
the
animals:
"Beasts
who
go
on
all
fours
came
from
men
who
were
wholly
unconversant
with
philosophy
and
had
never
gazed
on
the
heavens."
⁸
It
is
a
tale
of
the
Fall
in
permanence:
a
theory
of
descent
and
devolution
–
as
opposed
to
evolution
by
ascent.

As
so
often
with
Plato,
it
is
impossible
to
say
whether
all
this
is
to
be
taken
literally,
or
allegorically,
or
as
an
esoteric
leg-pull.
But
there
can
be
no
doubt
concerning
the
basic
trend
of
the
whole
system.