sms (11/05/82)
First, none of them [ rulers ] must possess any private property beyond the barest necessaries. ... If ever they should come to posses land of their own and houses and money, they will give up their guardianship for the management of their farms and households and become tyrants at enmity with their fellow citizens instead of allies. Plato Apparently some of you have the culture of a five year old yogurt. So a little background. Plato lived in Athens 2400 years ago. He is known for his dialectic and proved many strange ideas, e.g. that women should be equal.
tombl (11/07/82)
You forgot to mention some of the other details of Plato's Republic -- for example, that the arts should exist only to promote the policies of the state; also, that his tyrants, according to our interpretation, were exactly that. There was no pretense at democracy. I'm not at all sure we would be fond of these or many of the other details in practice. Tom Blenko decvax!teklabs!tekmdp!tombl ucbvax!teklabs!tekmdp!tombl tombl.tektronix@udel-relay