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PLATON - Pourquoi il se méfiait de la démocratie — Transcript

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0:00Understanding Rousseau's philosophy
0:03through Netflix, understanding Stoicism
0:05through the Covid crisis, or the
0:08Freudian concept of sublimation through
0:10Rocco Siffredi is the promise of this
0:13book, "Philosophy is for you too,"
0:15available on Amazon and in all good
0:18bookstores: a book that will prove to
0:20you that philosophy is for everyone.
0:27Hello everyone.
0:29Today, we are going to talk about Plato
0:32and democracy.
0:36When I was in philosophy school, I
0:39realized that there was a false belief
0:42among many people, the belief that Plato
0:45was a democrat, that he was even a
0:48fervent defender of democracy.
0:53So, let's be very clear, not at all.
0:57Not only was Plato not a democrat, but
1:00he was actually anti-democratic.
1:04And we are going to see what it means
1:06for Plato to be anti-democratic.
1:10And so one day, I ended up asking the
1:12question to someone who had that very
1:14belief, I asked them, "But where did you
1:17get the idea that Plato was?"
1:21And he replied, "Well, Plato is ancient
1:24Greece.
1:26And ancient Greece is democracy."
1:30And there, I said to myself, "Oh boy,
1:32that is not right at all.
1:36It's not right at all because just
1:38because Plato lived during the era of
1:40Athenian democracy doesn't mean he was a
1:43democrat himself.
1:46By that logic, everyone who lived under
1:48Stalin was a Stalinist.
1:51Everyone who lived under Hitler was a
1:54Nazi.
1:55Everyone who lived under Macron was a
1:58Macronist.
2:00So, that's nonsense.
2:02So yes, Plato did indeed live during the
2:05time of Athenian democracy, but no, he
2:09was not in favor of democracy.
2:13And there is a second reason that we
2:15sometimes hear to support the idea that
2:18Plato was in favor of democracy, and
2:20that is the fact that Plato was a
2:22philosopher.
2:25Yet for many people, being a philosopher
2:28necessarily means being a democrat.
2:32It necessarily means being for equality
2:35, being for liberty, for progress.
2:40No. That is an a posteriori distortion.
2:45A distortion that comes from the fact
2:48that most philosophers of modernity, at
2:51least the philosophers whose names we
2:54remember, were indeed philosophers with
2:56a humanist tendency.
2:59But the thing is, in antiquity, humanism
3:03, democracy, and individual liberty were
3:07not really the priority.
3:11It was not part of the philosophical
3:13software.
3:16So we must be very careful not to
3:18project our contemporary patterns onto
3:21past eras.
3:23We must be very careful about
3:25epistemological anachronism.
3:28The tendency to read the world and try
3:30to understand it through categories that
3:33do not belong to this world.
3:36So, once that is said, why was Plato
3:40against it?
3:43There are two reasons for this.
3:45Two reasons that actually overlap,
3:48without it being possible to say which
3:51one precedes the other.
3:54But in any case, two reasons, or rather
3:56two types of reasons.
4:00Firstly, philosophical reasons and
4:02secondly, biographical reasons.
4:06Biographical reason, that is to say,
4:08personal reason.
4:12The personal reason why Plato was
4:14against democracy is that it was
4:17democracy that condemned Socrates to
4:20death.
4:23In short, Socrates died because of
4:26democracy.
4:29I refer you here to Plato's book" The
4:32Apology of Socrates, "which recounts the
4:36trial of Socrates and clearly shows that
4:40the democratic judicial system based on
4:44citizen voting did not benefit the
4:47philosopher, nor truth and virtue, but
4:50the demagogue, the famous sophists.
4:56The sophists who had Socrates condemned
5:00by relying on rumors and relying on
5:03distortions to mobilize emotions in the
5:07citizens—emotions of anger, emotions of
5:11revenge—what Nietzsche would have called
5:14resentment.
5:18And thus had Socrates condemned on the
5:20basis of these emotions.
5:22From that point of view, democracy is
5:25not so much the power of the people as
5:28the power of the orator.
5:31Today we would say the power of the
5:33communicator.
5:35In any case, the power of appearance.
5:39So Socrates is the embodiment of what
5:41constitutes, according to Plato, a
5:44democratic failure.
5:47A democratic failure in the sense that
5:50to obtain the consent of the people, one
5:52does not need to be a wise man, one does
5:55not need to be driven by a desire for
5:57truth; one must be skilled in the art of
6:00manipulating opinion.
6:03One must be a sophist.
6:07So that is the first reason why Plato is
6:09not a democrat, a personal reason.
6:14Democracy put his master Socrates to
6:17death.
6:19The second reason why Plato was not a
6:22democrat was a strictly philosophical
6:25reason.
6:26And that is obviously where we will need
6:28to concentrate a little.
6:31So rest assured, we will take it slowly
6:34.
6:34I cannot tell you to stop me if you do
6:37not understand, but in any case, nothing
6:39prevents you from pausing and going back
6:41.
6:43So to understand what Plato criticizes
6:46in democracy, we must start by
6:48understanding how Plato views the ideal
6:51city.
6:53The ideal city that he calls Callipolis
6:56, meaning the beautiful city, which we
6:59could also call the perfect society.
7:03The perfect society is not a society
7:06where people are free.
7:09It is not a society where people are
7:11equal, either.
7:14It is a society in which everyone
7:16fulfills the function that belongs to
7:19them.
7:20If you prefer, and to put it somewhat
7:23bluntly, it is a society where everyone
7:26is in their place.
7:29I can hear you already.
7:32But what does" everyone is in their
7:34place "mean? And what then?
7:38I understand.
7:40Because in our day and age, well, that's
7:41called a dictatorship.
7:44But why is it called that?
7:48Well, because in our time, one of the
7:50most important political values is
7:52freedom.
7:54The freedom of the individual.
7:57Except that this criterion of individual
8:00freedom is a very recent one in the
8:03scale of history.
8:05It is a criterion that has only existed
8:07for two centuries.
8:09That is to say, well, since the French
8:11Revolution.
8:13But except that before the French
8:15Revolution, we did not think of society
8:17in terms of freedom.
8:20We did not even think of society in
8:22terms of the individual.
8:24We thought of society in terms of order
8:27.
8:29The politico-social criterion was order
8:32.
8:33And by order, one should not necessarily
8:37understand something repressive or
8:39tyrannical.
8:41For Plato, order is harmony.
8:46And what is harmony?
8:48It is the proper arrangement.
8:52Proper in both senses of the term: in
8:55the sense of accuracy and in the sense
8:58of justice.
9:01Because for the ancients, justice and
9:03accuracy are the same thing.
9:07It is balance.
9:10In legal matters, a decision is just
9:13when it is balanced.
9:16That is to say, when the penalty is
9:18proportional to the crime.
9:20Hence the symbol of the scales.
9:22Balance.
9:25In the same way that in arithmetic, we
9:27say a result is correct—in other words,
9:30true—when what is on each side of the
9:32equals sign is identical.
9:37So, for Plato, the city must be the
9:39place of harmony.
9:41More precisely, it must be the
9:44reflection of harmony.
9:46Reflection of harmony in the sense that
9:49harmony is what governs the universe.
9:52The universe, also called the cosmos.
9:55Cosmos, which in Greek means harmony.
9:59Everything is linked.
10:02And here, we enter into something very
10:05Platonic, which is the intertwining of
10:08politics and metaphysics.
10:13We will explain what that means; stay
10:15focused.
10:17Nowadays, if someone were to run for
10:20office saying," Vote for me, I will
10:23implement my metaphysical program. "
10:26They would be taken for a madman.
10:30They wouldn't even be allowed to run for
10:32office.
10:34Because we live in a cultural paradigm
10:37where metaphysics has no place.
10:41In any case, it has no place in politics
10:44.
10:46You can have a metaphysical view of the
10:48world in the private sphere, but not in
10:50politics.
10:53In politics, we talk about material
10:57issues, retirement, education, health,
11:01and security.
11:04We talk about concrete things.
11:07And since 1905, we consider that
11:10politics should not be mixed with
11:13metaphysical beliefs, what we call the
11:16separation of the temporal and the
11:19spiritual, of the earth and the sky.
11:24Politics is the earth.
11:27The sky is not its concern.
11:31Well, that doesn't work in Plato's time
11:34.
11:36In Plato's time, you don't dissociate
11:39the earth from the sky.
11:42You don't dissociate the temporal from
11:44the spiritual.
11:47You don't dissociate politics from the
11:49metaphysical.
11:53Plato saw the universe as the reflection
11:57of a metaphysical harmony, the harmony
12:00that puts the stars in their place, the
12:04harmony that puts the functions of the
12:07soul in their place.
12:11And which also means that individuals
12:14within society must be in their place.
12:19I invite you to imagine the universe
12:21according to Plato as a set of nested
12:24Russian dolls.
12:26The big doll is the universal order.
12:30The medium doll is the political order.
12:35The small doll is the individual order.
12:39Cosmos, city, soul.
12:43Theory of correspondences.
12:46Theory of fractal structures.
12:49Of the microcosm and the macrocosm.
12:53Which makes what is above like what is
12:56below.
12:58Or rather that what is below must be
13:01like what is above.
13:04The city must seek the cosmic order.
13:08It must seek to be in the image of the
13:11cosmic order.
13:13Because the cosmic order, according to
13:16Plato, is the model of justice.
13:20We could talk at length about all of
13:22this.
13:23And if you ask me, I could even make an
13:25episode dedicated to the question of
13:27correspondences in Plato.
13:29There is plenty of material.
13:31But for now, I suggest we move on.
13:36Plato's ideal city must be in the image
13:38of the cosmos.
13:41And it must be in the image of the soul
13:43.
13:44Because, well, it's the same thing.
13:48Three levels.
13:50First level, lower level, the producers
13:54.
13:56Producers whose function is to provide
13:58for the needs of the body, the material
14:01needs.
14:04Which is why producers are associated
14:07with the lower part of the soul that
14:10Plato calls epithumia and which
14:13corresponds precisely to the sphere of
14:16material needs, to the sphere of
14:18physiological needs, eating and
14:21reproducing.
14:252nd level, intermediate level, the
14:28warriors.
14:32Warriors whose function is the defense
14:34of the city and who are associated with
14:37the intermediate part of the soul,
14:39namely the thumos.
14:43The thumos is the sphere of the soul
14:47characterized by ardor, courage, and
14:52will.
14:54If epithumia is located in the belly and
14:57the lower abdomen, because well that's
15:01where physiological needs reside, the
15:04need to feed and the need to reproduce,
15:07thumos is located in the chest, in the
15:10heart.
15:12Heart, courage, it's the same etymology
15:15.
15:16Will comes from the heart and will is
15:20the virtue of the warrior.
15:24And finally, 3rd level, the higher level
15:28, the wise, the philosopher-kings.
15:34Philosopher-kings whom Plato calls the
15:36guardians.
15:38The guardians of the city.
15:41Because for Plato, it is the
15:43philosophers who must lead the city.
15:48Because philosophers have a knowledge of
15:51what justice is.
15:54They have a knowledge of what harmony is
15:58, the good in itself.
16:02Now, insofar as the city must be
16:04oriented towards justice, insofar as it
16:07must be oriented towards the good in
16:09itself, we must entrust the
16:11administration of the city to those who
16:14know where the good is, that is to say,
16:16the philosopher.
16:20Hence this famous phrase from Plato:"
16:23Either philosophers must become kings,
16:26or kings must become philosophers.
16:29"Because for Plato, the philosopher is
16:32not only the one who knows the nature of
16:36the good but above all who puts the good
16:39into practice.
16:42And putting the good into practice means
16:45not being attached to material goods,
16:48not being subject to material goods.
16:53The philosopher is the one who has freed
16:55himself from matter.
16:57It is the one who has freed himself from
16:59the tyranny of desire.
17:02So it is the one who can govern
17:05according to the principles of reason,
17:07justice, and virtue.
17:11And obviously, the philosopher-king in
17:14Plato's conception of the soul is reason
17:18.
17:20What Plato calls the logos.
17:24So that is the ideal city.
17:28Ideal city governed by the ideal
17:30government, the government of
17:32philosopher-kings.
17:35I do mean philosopher-kings.
17:38The Platonic city is not a monarchy, it
17:41is an aristocracy.
17:44Aristocracy in the etymological sense.
17:48Since aristos in Greek means the best.
17:53Best in the sense of those who are the
17:55most competent, those who are the most
17:58qualified to govern.
18:01Because obviously, the word best, well,
18:02you can put anything you want behind it
18:04.
18:05Everything depends on the criterion.
18:07Everything depends on what is being
18:09targeted.
18:11But if what is being targeted is the
18:13good, if what is being targeted is
18:16justice, the best is the philosopher
18:19because he is the one who has the best
18:21knowledge of what justice is.
18:27So to recap, the perfect society
18:29according to Plato is one organized
18:32according to the hierarchical principles
18:36of the soul, namely the producers at the
18:39bottom who provide for bodily needs, the
18:43warriors in the middle who provide
18:46defense functions, and the philosophers
18:49at the top who orient the city toward
18:52the good.
18:55Need, will, reason, matter, energy,
19:00light.
19:03But what Plato tells us is that this
19:07ideal city will not remain ideal for
19:10very long.
19:12It will become corrupt.
19:15According to the Platonic idea to which
19:18I dedicated an episode, everything that
19:20is born becomes corrupt.
19:23This is what is called the theory of
19:25degeneration.
19:27Everything that has a material existence
19:31degenerates.
19:33This holds true for inanimate objects,
19:36wear and tear; it holds true for living
19:40organisms, aging; and it holds true for
19:43political regimes.
19:47For Plato, there is a slow drift of
19:50political regimes, meaning a succession
19:53of political regimes where each carries
19:56within it the seed of the next.
20:00Each regime carries within it the
20:02principle of its own degradation.
20:06And so we will see five regimes follow
20:10one another in total: aristocracy,
20:13timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and
20:17tyranny.
20:21Now, I will pass very quickly over the
20:23explanations Plato gives us regarding
20:25the trigger for this degeneration of
20:27political regimes—some rather esoteric
20:30explanations.
20:33Plato speaks of a mathematical
20:35disturbance in the rhythm of births, the
20:38idea that generations began to overlap
20:41when they should not have.
20:46And this disturbance in births will lead
20:49to a first corruption, a first
20:51corruption that will result in the end
20:54of the aristocracy, thus the end of the
20:57city of philosopher-kings, and the
21:00transition to timocracy.
21:04So, what is it?
21:07Timocracy is literally the government of
21:10honors.
21:12It is the regime in which what governs
21:15is the love of honors.
21:18So, to put it clearly, a government of
21:21warriors and ambitious people.
21:25So, we must explain why, for Plato, this
21:28constitutes a degradation.
21:32Well, because in the ideal city, the
21:35leaders are driven by the love of virtue
21:38, by a disinterested love of virtue.
21:44They do good, not because they find an
21:47interest in it; they do good for the
21:49love of the good.
21:52Therefore, in timocracy, we move from a
21:55disinterested love of the good to an
21:58interested love of the good.
22:01Interested in the sense of finding
22:03personal gain in it.
22:05A bit like when Kant explains that being
22:08moral out of self-interest, well, that
22:10is not being moral.
22:13To be moral is to be driven by a pure
22:16respect for the moral law.
22:19In timocracy, honor has replaced virtue
22:23.
22:24It is no longer about doing good for the
22:27love of good.
22:29It is about doing good to show that one
22:31is doing good.
22:33It is about doing good for the sake of
22:35glory.
22:37Glory is renown.
22:40It is reputation.
22:43This is something found in the European
22:46nobility of the Middle Ages and even up
22:48to the early modern period: the
22:50attachment to reputation.
22:54The attachment to the greatness of the
22:56opinion that people have of us.
22:59So, you see here that we are dealing
23:01with a first form of decline.
23:04Because we shift from the love of virtue
23:07in itself to the love of virtue as a
23:10means.
23:12From the love of virtue to the love of
23:15the image of virtue.
23:17We separate ourselves from the original
23:20unity with the good.
23:22We enter into duality, that is to say,
23:25into representation.
23:29Therefore, timocracy, government by
23:32warriors, government of honors, which
23:36values courage and bravery, but only as
23:39a means to reap honors.
23:44First degradation.
23:47Second degradation, the transition from
23:50timocracy to oligarchy.
23:53Well, this transition is explained quite
23:55easily.
23:58Plato tells us," Timocracy being
24:00governed by warriors, war necessarily
24:04leads to the hoarding of wealth.
24:07"We go to war against a nation, the goal
24:10, well, is to appropriate its resources
24:13, to appropriate its territories and its
24:16wealth.
24:19Prosperous nations have historically
24:21been warrior nations.
24:24And when a nation becomes conquering,
24:27when it becomes expansionist, it becomes
24:29an empire.
24:32The emperor is a war leader.
24:36So war leads to the accumulation of
24:39wealth, and the accumulation of wealth
24:43gives birth to the love of wealth.
24:47And gradually, the love of wealth takes
24:50precedence over the love of glory.
24:54See?
24:55We always have the same pattern.
24:58A principle that governs, this principle
25:01has consequences, and the consequences
25:04become the new principle.
25:07Aristocratic virtue becomes timocratic
25:11honor, timocratic honor becomes
25:13oligarchic wealth.
25:17And so this is where we must pause on
25:19the word oligarchy.
25:21Oligarchy in Greek does not mean
25:24government of the rich.
25:26It means government by the few." Oligo "
25:31in Greek is that which is in small
25:34quantity.
25:36Like in the word" oligoelement. "But the
25:39thing is, when Plato speaks of oligarchy
25:42, he is talking about the rich.
25:45He says it explicitly.
25:48That is why we can here replace the word
25:51oligarchy with the word plutocracy.
25:55Plutocracy," ploutos "is the god of
25:58wealth.
26:00So plutocracy is literally the power of
26:03the rich.
26:05Power of the wealthy succeeding the
26:07power of warriors, exactly as the
26:09bourgeoisie in France succeeded the
26:11nobility.
26:13I remind you that what defines nobility
26:16is not money.
26:18Money is a consequence of something else
26:20, which is the pursuit of honor.
26:23Among nobles, one is not defined by
26:26wealth, one is defined by their title,
26:29the famous title of nobility.
26:33One is a marquis.
26:34One is a count.
26:36One is a duke.
26:38And the first nobles were knights.
26:41Therefore, warriors.
26:44When the bourgeoisie takes power from
26:46the nobility, it replaces the power of
26:49honor with the power of money.
26:52And it completely desacralizes honorific
26:55virtues.
26:58I am going to say it totally explicitly
27:00.
27:02A noble is someone who prefers ruin to
27:06dishonor.
27:09A bourgeois is someone who prefers
27:12dishonor to ruin.
27:17So that is how the transition from the
27:192nd regime to the 3rd regime takes place
27:21, from timocracy to oligarchy.
27:26And here, I would like to draw your
27:28attention to the movement we have just
27:31covered.
27:33We moved first from aristocracy to
27:36timocracy.
27:38That is to say, from the government of
27:40philosophers to the government of
27:42warriors.
27:43I will put it to you another way.
27:47We moved from the government of reason
27:50to the government of courage, to the
27:53government of the will.
27:57We moved from logos to thumos.
28:01Logos, the superior part of the soul.
28:05Thumos, the intermediate part of the
28:07soul.
28:10We moved from the head to the heart.
28:13And then, we moved from timocracy to
28:17oligarchy.
28:19That is to say, from the government of
28:22the will to the government of desire.
28:26From the government of the heart to the
28:29government of the belly.
28:31Well, yes.
28:33Since oligarchy, as a regime governed by
28:36the love of wealth, is the materialist
28:40regime par excellence.
28:43Materialist in the double sense of the
28:46term, both attached to material goods
28:49and amputated of any spiritual dimension
28:53.
28:54What governs in an oligarchy are the
28:58lowest needs, the lowest desires.
29:03The warrior at least had the merit of
29:05being attached to immaterial goods.
29:09Honor is an immaterial good.
29:12One can die defending one's honor.
29:16Therefore, renouncing material life.
29:19The wealthy person, for their part, does
29:22not want to renounce material life
29:24because wealth has no meaning outside of
29:27this material life.
29:30Total despiritualization.
29:34Total desacralization.
29:39There is a degeneration of political
29:41regimes because there is a decline in
29:43the faculties of the soul.
29:47He says," There is a decadence of the
29:50soul, from the sphere of the spirit to
29:53the sphere of matter.
29:55"And that is where we arrive at
29:59democracy.
30:01What triggers the entry into it?
30:06Well, here again, it's quite simple to
30:08understand.
30:11If oligarchy is the rule of the rich,
30:14democracy will arise from the anger of
30:17the poor.
30:19Today we would call them the exploited,
30:22the proletarians.
30:25Oligarchy is a deeply unequal regime.
30:30Democracy is rooted in an egalitarian
30:33demand.
30:35In other words, oligarchy will give
30:38birth to its own contradiction, its own
30:42refutation, what we call a dialectical
30:45movement.
30:47It will give rise to the revolt of the
30:50poor.
30:52The poor will then band together to
30:54banish the rich or to kill them.
30:58In any case, to eliminate exploitation.
31:02And so, one might say," Well, that's
31:05very good.
31:06"The poor take power; the poor in this
31:10case are the workers.
31:14So, there is no more exploitation, no
31:16more inequality, no more injustice.
31:21What more could you ask for?
31:22It’s an apt expression.
31:25Well, that's where Plato says," No. "
31:28Democracy doesn't work."
31:31Why doesn't it work? "Because democracy
31:35is driven, as we just said, by a demand
31:39for equality.
31:43However, what Plato tells us is that
31:45equality is not a viable thing.
31:49There must be a hierarchy.
31:54The same hierarchy that governed both
31:56the individual soul and the cosmos.
32:00We talked about that earlier.
32:03In other words, what the people call
32:06equality, Plato calls indistinction.
32:11And this indistinction is a vector for
32:14disorder.
32:16I will take an example.
32:19For Plato, democracy is the abolition of
32:22the hierarchy between the young and the
32:24old.
32:27Plato has very clear sentences on this.
32:30He writes," Teachers fear their students
32:32and students no longer respect their
32:35teachers.
32:37"The young compete with their elders and
32:39seek to resemble them.
32:42While the elders descend to the level of
32:45the young, imitating their language and
32:48their ways.
32:50And for Plato, that is not possible.
32:54It is not possible to tolerate such
32:56generational indistinction.
32:59Because generational indistinction paves
33:02the way for all other indistinctions.
33:06Indistinction between the learned and
33:09the ignorant.
33:10Indistinction between the virtuous and
33:13the corrupt.
33:14Between the philosopher and the sophist
33:16.
33:17In short, for Plato, equality is a
33:19vector of disorder.
33:23And when equality is accompanied by
33:25liberty, as is the case in democracy,
33:28this disorder multiplies itself.
33:33Disorder becomes anarchy.
33:38Now, I know anarchists hate it when we
33:40say that anarchy is disorder.
33:44They usually cite Proudhon's phrase
33:46which says," Anarchy is order without
33:48authority.
33:49"And not the absence of order.
33:53I know all of that perfectly well, but
33:55it is to Plato that you must say it.
33:57For Plato, anarchy is just disorder.
34:01It is just chaos.
34:04The chaos that makes no justice possible
34:07, since the principle of the good is
34:10replaced by the principle of individual
34:13desire.
34:14In a democracy, everyone lives as they
34:17please.
34:19And living as we please means being
34:22subject to our desires.
34:25Being subject to our passions.
34:28Not to mention our impulses.
34:32In this sense, democracy, Plato tells us
34:35, is animalization.
34:39And if democracy is animalization, then
34:42democracy is enslavement.
34:46Since it is the servitude of the
34:48individual to their desires and passions
34:51.
34:53When we speak of freedom, Plato tells us
34:55, we must be careful not to confuse real
34:58freedom with fake freedom.
35:02Real freedom is illusory freedom.
35:06What Plato calls license.
35:10License is permissiveness.
35:13It is freedom conceived as an absence of
35:16control.
35:17As an absence of limits.
35:20What Plato calls hubris.
35:23Immoderation.
35:26There is no freedom in immoderation.
35:29Because there is total submission to
35:30one's passions.
35:33The democratic illusion of freedom hides
35:36the tyrannical servitude to our passions
35:39.
35:41It is not over.
35:44Plato is not yet finished with his
35:46critique of democracy.
35:49But before finishing, I would like to
35:51point out to you the movement that has
35:53just taken place here as well.
35:58In oligarchy, we already had what we
35:59could call a government of desire.
36:03Desire understood in the sense of
36:05material desire.
36:08Democracy is the regime that extends the
36:12government of desire, but gives it a
36:16plural character as well.
36:21A multiple character.
36:24In what way?
36:26Well, in the sense that in an oligarchy
36:29, there was one desire that governed the
36:32whole of society.
36:34The desire for wealth.
36:37For Plato, if there is degeneration
36:40between oligarchy and democracy, in
36:43other words, if the transition from
36:46oligarchy to democracy truly constitutes
36:50a decline, it is because there is a
36:53transition from unity to multiplicity.
36:59However, for Plato, multiplicity in
37:01itself constitutes a sign of decline.
37:05It is one thing to denounce the
37:07government of desire, it is another to
37:10denounce the government of desires.
37:14Because moving away from unity
37:17constitutes a degradation in itself.
37:21So we already had a downward movement in
37:25the degeneration of regimes—virtue,
37:28honor, desire—and now we have an
37:31anarchic proliferation of desire that
37:34adds instability to instability.
37:39Once again, saying this today obviously
37:42means running the risk of being
37:44described as a fascist.
37:47Moreover, this is exactly what someone
37:51like Karl Popper does in his book The
37:54Open Society and Its Enemies; he traces
37:57the totalitarian impulse back to Plato
38:00precisely because Plato opposes the
38:03values of the open society, open society
38:07in the sense of a liberal society that
38:10views freedom and diversity not as
38:13anomalies or failures,
38:16but on the contrary, as cardinal values
38:19.
38:20Plato is not into that at all.
38:24Plato is no liberal; he is an aristocrat
38:28of virtue, an elitist of virtue.
38:35And if modernity considers desire and
38:38plurality as pillars of a just society,
38:41Plato, on the contrary, considers that a
38:44just society rests on order and unity.
38:50I now come to the last point.
38:52Manipulation.
38:56Plato tells us," What characterizes the
38:58individual subject to their desires is
39:01versatility.
39:03"Versatile, meaning one who turns and
39:06turns back again.
39:10The democratic man, Plato tells us, is
39:12fundamentally versatile.
39:15He is fundamentally capricious,
39:18inconstant, thoughtless.
39:23And because he is thoughtless, because
39:26he lets himself be governed by his
39:28drives and impulses, he is fundamentally
39:31manipulable.
39:34Manipulable by whom?
39:37By orators, by sophists, by demagogues.
39:45Demagoguery is the art of telling the
39:47people what they want to hear.
39:50I mean exactly what they want to hear.
39:54The demagogue appeals to the passions.
39:57What Plato tells us is that a democratic
40:01society is destined, by nature, to be a
40:05demagogic society, to be a society of
40:08emotional manipulation.
40:11There is almost an authentically
40:13democratic side to the Platonic critique
40:16of democracy.
40:18Authentically democratic in the sense,
40:20for example, that La Boétie criticizes
40:23voluntary servitude in the name of
40:25emancipation, or in the sense that Paul
40:28Lafargue criticizes the workers in the
40:30name of anti-productivism, in the name
40:33of the right to laziness.
40:36Because ultimately, what Plato is
40:39criticizing is not so much democracy as
40:43what we call ochlocracy.
40:46Okhlos means the mob, the mob in
40:49opposition to the people.
40:52For this, we must look at what the
40:54philosopher Polybius wrote.
40:56Polybius wrote that ochlocracy was
40:59itself a degeneration of democracy
41:02because in a democracy, the people
41:05govern through laws.
41:08These are somewhat the beginnings of the
41:10general will in Rousseau.
41:13Whereas in ochlocracy, it is the mob
41:15that governs according to its desires.
41:19So there is indeed a shift that occurs
41:22between democracy and ochlocracy.
41:26A shift we also find in Gustave Le Bon
41:29with his crowd psychology.
41:32But it matters little.
41:35Let us simply keep in mind that when
41:38Plato speaks of the people and democracy
41:40, we can transpose the elements of his
41:43critique to the mob and ochlocracy.
41:49And so, this brings us to the final step
41:52of Plato's reasoning, to the last stage
41:55of the degeneration of political regimes
41:59, namely the transition from democracy
42:02to tyranny.
42:06Democracy, Plato tells us, leads to
42:09tyranny.
42:12Because an excess of disorder
42:15necessarily creates a desire for order.
42:20Order is a response to disorder.
42:25When there are no longer any rules, when
42:28there is a feeling of instability,
42:31confusion, and disorganization, a tyrant
42:35emerges.
42:38He emerges as a response to the crisis
42:41of authority.
42:43He emerges as the one who will finally
42:47restore authority.
42:50He emerges as a response to chaos.
42:55I quote.
42:58Democracy is established when the poor,
43:01having won victory over their enemies,
43:03kill some, banish others, and share the
43:06government and magistracies equally with
43:09those who remain.
43:11Most often, the magistracies are even
43:14assigned by lot.
43:16Is it not true that, first of all, one
43:18is free in such a state, and that
43:21liberty, frank speech, and the license
43:23to do what one wants reign everywhere?
43:27But wherever this license reigns, it is
43:29clear that everyone can create for
43:31themselves a particular way of life
43:34according to their own whim.
43:37Have you not already seen in a state of
43:40this kind men condemned to death or
43:42exile who nonetheless stay, circulate in
43:45public, and walk about like ghosts, as
43:48if no one cared about them or noticed
43:50them?
43:53In such a state, the teacher fears and
43:56flatters his students, and the students
43:58mock their teacher as well as their
44:00tutors.
44:02In general, the young are on par with
44:05the old and vie with them in words and
44:08actions.
44:10The old, for their part, in order to
44:12please the young, act playful and witty
44:14, imitating them so as not to appear
44:17grumpy or despotic.
44:19Such is, my friend, the beautiful and
44:22seductive beginning of tyranny.
44:25For it is certain that every excess
44:28generally brings about a violent
44:30reaction, whether in the seasons, in
44:33plants, in bodies, and in governments
44:35more than anywhere else.
44:39An excess of liberty cannot, therefore,
44:41it seems, result in anything other than
44:44an excess of servitude, both in the
44:46individual and in the state.
44:50It is therefore natural that tyranny is
44:53born from no other government than
44:55popular government, meaning that from
44:58extreme liberty is born the most
45:01complete and atrocious servitude.
45:08We would understand contemporary
45:10political dynamics much better,
45:13especially the phenomenon of political
45:16polarization—polarization that causes us
45:19to radicalize in one direction in
45:22response to what we perceive as a threat
45:25from the opposing camp—and how these
45:28radicalisms feed and stimulate one
45:31another.
45:34We would better understand the nature of
45:38this phenomenon if we kept in mind this
45:42idea of the dialectic of power, the idea
45:46that any emerging power is a response to
45:50the previous power, the idea that every
45:54power contains within it the seed of the
45:58power that will overthrow it,
46:02the idea that every excess leads to the
46:05opposite excess.
46:10When a regime falls into excess, when a
46:14regime begins to be overwhelmed by its
46:17own internal logic, by its own
46:20uncontrolled expansion, it knows that it
46:24is living its final hours.
46:29So, it tenses up, it grows agitated, it
46:34struggles.
46:37And the more it struggles, the more it
46:40becomes a caricature of itself.
46:45And in doing so, it further fuels the
46:48reaction,
46:51it further fuels what will eventually
46:55destroy it.
46:58History is tragic.
47:00History is tragic because it repeats
47:03itself.
47:05History is tragic because we have not
47:08learned the lessons of a Greek
47:11philosopher who lived 2,500 years ago.
47:16But above all, history is tragic because
47:21when we realize it, it will already be
47:25too late.
47:28Thank you.

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