Aristotle on Tyranny

[Paladin]

Written over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle could easily have been writing about current events:

Aristotle on Tyranny

The methods of tyranny

Aristotle notes that tyrants can preserve themselves if they succeed in securing three objectives – to break the spirit of the people, to sow mutual distrust and to render them incapable of action.

“Their first end and aim is to break the spirit of their subjects. They know that a poor-spirited man will never plot against anybody.”

“Their second aim is to breed mutual distrust. Tyranny is never overthrown until people can begin to trust one another; and this is the reason why tyrants are always at war with the good. They feel that good men are dangerous to their authority, not only because they think it shame to be governed despotically but also because of their loyalty to themselves and to others and because of their refusal to betray one another or anybody else.”

“The third and last aim of tyrants is to make their subjects incapable of action. Nobody attempts the impossible. Nobody, therefore, will attempt the overthrow of tyranny, when all are incapable of action.” 1314a12

What Aristotle describes here are the three cornerstones of effective political organization and leadership. For a political association to be effective it must first of all have spiritedness, or thumos. It must have confidence in its own judgment, in its ability to defeat its enemies and in its ability to rule. It must possess a capacity for righteous anger, a willingness to fight, to take risks – in short, it must possess political will, a will to power. Second, it must be able to mobilize a larger body of people. Numbers act as a force multiplier, but for any form of large-scale organization to be possible there must exist bonds of trust and loyalty. The members of the association must be able to count on each other. An association full of infighting, petty squabbles and betrayal will achieve nothing. Finally, an association must be able to act when the opportunities present themselves. Every political triumph comes about through decisive action, something that is only possible when the other two factors are in place...

[The Annoyed Man]

The times may change, but truth does not.

But his analysis of tyranny aside, Aristotle wasn’t much of a fan of working people, was he? He excludes them from participating in the polis. And that is a form of tyranny in and of itself. He denies the right of participation to anyone who isn’t an adult male member of the aristocracy, and ascribes "goodness" only to them. According to him, a worker cannot be good.

“Now the best constitution is that under which the city can attain the greatest happiness; and that, as we have already stated, * cannot exist without goodness. Upon these principles it clearly follows that in a city with the best possible constitution – a city which has for its members people who are absolutely just, rather than ones who are merely just in relation to some particular standard – the citizens must not live the life of mechanics or shopkeepers, which is ignoble and inimical to goodness. Nor can those who are to be citizens engage in farming: leisure is a necessity, both for growth in goodness and for the pursuit of political activities.” 1328b24

Now, I can see how when voting was restricted to property owners, there was an argument to be made for it based on the notion that they were the ones who paid taxes, and thus the ones who had a financial stake in gov’t. Perhaps in Aristotle’s times, mechanics and shopkeepers paid no taxes…but I find that unlikely if they weren’t chattel slaves.

In this graphic, he is correct that a Constitutional gov’t is the least corrupt form of gov’t, but he is incorrect (in my opinion) in excluding anyone who isn’t a person of leisure from participation in that gov’t.

Maybe I’m not understanding him correctly, and I’m happy to be proven wrong if I’m not.