gopsdragon
01-10-03, 04:03 PM
A particular section of Aristotle's "Politics" is disturbing when you look at what is going on with the attorney general's office right now.
Aristotle discusses different forms of government and how to preserve and how to destroy them. In one discussion he is describing how tyrants try to retain power.
While I don't think Ashcroft wants to be a tyrant in Aristotle's model, the likenesses are troubling none the less. Part of being a free society is being vigilant enough to learn the lessons of history and not repeat them.
Listen to what Aristotle says about a tyrant attempting to retain his power; compare those actions to the powers Ashcroft has requested; and see if it troubles you the way it troubles me.
Paragraph 1313a34
"Tyrannies can be preserved in two ways, which are utterly opposed to one another. One of them is the traditional way; and it is also the method of government still followed by the majority of tyrants....
to require every resident in the city to be constantly appearing in public, and always hanging about the palace gates. (In this way they are least likely to escape notice in what they do and they will come to have a low opinion of themselves as a result of being continually in the position of slaves.)
This line of policy also includes other tyrannical measures of a similar character, common in Persia and other barbarian countries.
For example, a tyrant may try to ensure that nothing which any of his subjects says or does escapes his notice. This entails a secret police, like the female spies employed at Syracuse, or the eavesdropping sent by the tyrant Hieron to all social gatherings and public meetings....He may sow mutual distrust and foster discord between friend and friend; between people and notables; between one section of the rich and another."
To always feel like you are under observance and to feel uncomfortable are the points of the strategy above. In the modern day we don't have to stand at the city gates, with technology every home can be the city gate in which you are being observed.
A bad precedent is being set for later abuses, even if the guys who put the system into place don't plan on abusing it.
Aristotle discusses different forms of government and how to preserve and how to destroy them. In one discussion he is describing how tyrants try to retain power.
While I don't think Ashcroft wants to be a tyrant in Aristotle's model, the likenesses are troubling none the less. Part of being a free society is being vigilant enough to learn the lessons of history and not repeat them.
Listen to what Aristotle says about a tyrant attempting to retain his power; compare those actions to the powers Ashcroft has requested; and see if it troubles you the way it troubles me.
Paragraph 1313a34
"Tyrannies can be preserved in two ways, which are utterly opposed to one another. One of them is the traditional way; and it is also the method of government still followed by the majority of tyrants....
to require every resident in the city to be constantly appearing in public, and always hanging about the palace gates. (In this way they are least likely to escape notice in what they do and they will come to have a low opinion of themselves as a result of being continually in the position of slaves.)
This line of policy also includes other tyrannical measures of a similar character, common in Persia and other barbarian countries.
For example, a tyrant may try to ensure that nothing which any of his subjects says or does escapes his notice. This entails a secret police, like the female spies employed at Syracuse, or the eavesdropping sent by the tyrant Hieron to all social gatherings and public meetings....He may sow mutual distrust and foster discord between friend and friend; between people and notables; between one section of the rich and another."
To always feel like you are under observance and to feel uncomfortable are the points of the strategy above. In the modern day we don't have to stand at the city gates, with technology every home can be the city gate in which you are being observed.
A bad precedent is being set for later abuses, even if the guys who put the system into place don't plan on abusing it.