How Democracies Become Tyrannies

by Ed Kaitz - February 16th, 2009 - American Thinker

Back in 1959 the philosopher Eric Hoffer had this to say about Americans and America:

For those who want to be left alone to realize their capacities and talents this is an ideal country.

That was then. This is now. Flash forward fifty years to the election of Barack Obama and a hard left leaning Democrat Congress. What Americans want today, apparently, is a government that has no intention of leaving any of us alone.

How could Hoffer have been so wrong about America? Why did America change so quickly? Can a free people willingly choose servitude? Is it possible for democracies to become tyrannies? How?

The answers to these questions were famously addressed in a few pages tucked within the greatest masterpiece of the classical world: Plato's Republic.

This is an interesting article for the most obvious reason. It indicates that those of us concerned about the failure of our society to fear the possibility of slavery for our nation are not alone in that fear. Ed Kaitz has pointed us back to something that all of us should have read and absorbed if we wanted to remain a free nation. Plato's Republic is a perfect example of the age old wisdom that those who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it. It is now more than 2,500 years after it was created and still serves as the perfect explanation for those who wish to remain free of the forces that hope to enslave them. Yet we seem not to have learned the lesson.