From Democracy into Tyranny

Last of all comes the most beautiful of man and State alike: tyranny and the tyrant.

How does tyranny arise? Does tyranny spring from democracy in the same way as democracy from oligarchy?

The excess of wealth was the good which oligarchy proposed to itself. Oligarchy was maintained by that wealth. The insatiable desire of wealth and the neglect of all other things for the sake of money-getting was also the ruin of oligarchy.

Likewise, the insatiable desire for freedom in a democracy brings the dissolution of democracy. In a democracy, freedom is the glory of the State. Therefore, the freeman will dwell only in a democracy.

The insatiable desire for freedom, and the neglect of other things, introduces the change in democracy, which creates a demand for tyranny.

When a democracy has drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, she demands more. If their rulers do not give more wine, she punishes them and says that they are cursed oligarchs.

The slaves of democracy hug their chains and insult the loyal citizens. The subjects in a democracy act like rulers, and rulers act like subjects.

Slowly, the anarchy finds a way into private houses.

• The father grows accustomed to fear his sons.
• The son has no respect or reverence for his parents. This is his freedom.

The foreigner is equal with the citizen and the citizen with the foreigner. There are several other lesser evils:

• The teacher fears and flatters his students, and the students despise their teachers and tutors.
• The young man is on a level with the old, and is ready to compete with him in word or deed.
• Old men condescend to the young. They adopt the manners of the young and become full of pleasantry and gaiety in order to avoid being thought of as morose and authoritative.

The last extreme of popular liberty is when:

• the slave is just as free as his or her owner, and
• there is liberty and equality of male and female.

Domesticated animals have the most liberty in a democracy than in any other State. The horses and asses march with all the rights and dignities of freemen.

They will run at anybody who comes in their way. All things are just ready to burst with liberty.

Above all, see how sensitive the citizens become.

• They chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority.
• They cease to care even for written or unwritten laws.

Such is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.

The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy. The same disease that was magnified and intensified by liberty now overwhelms democracy.

The excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction. * This is the case in:

• the seasons
• plant and animal life
• all forms of government.

The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, creates an excess of slavery. And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

The most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery happens in the most extreme form of liberty.

• Oligarchy and democracy creates a disorder that ruins both.

In the class of idle spendthrifts:

• the leaders are the more courageous ones
• the followers are the more timid ones

They are drones, some stingless, and others having stings.

These 2 classes are the plagues of every city just as phlegm and bile are to the body.

The good physician and lawgiver should be like the wise bee-master. They should keep them far and prevent them from ever coming in. If they have found a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out as fast as possible.

Democracy is divided into 3 classes:

1. The Ruling Drones [poor people]

Freedom creates more drones in the democratic than in the oligarchical State.

• In the oligarchical State, they are disqualified and driven from office. They cannot train or gather strength.
• In a democracy, the drones are almost the entire ruling power. The keener sort speak and act, while the rest keep buzzing about.

2. The Wealthy class

The orderly class is severed from the mass. In a nation of traders, this is sure to be the richest. They are the most squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones which feed on them.

3. The Working Class

The people are a third class, consisting of those who work with their own hands. They are not politicians, and have not much to live on. This, when assembled, is the largest and most powerful class in a democracy.

They do not share.

Their [democractic] leaders deprive the rich of their estates and distribute them among the people and reserve the larger part for themselves.

The wealthy are compelled to defend themselves against the people as they best can. Some drones charge them with plotting against the people and being friends of oligarchy.

In the end, they are forced to become real oligarchs when:

• they see the people through ignorance, not of their own accord, and
• they are deceived by informers, seeking to do them wrong.

They do not wish to be oligarchs. But the sting of the drones torments them and breeds revolution in them.