Plato, Democracy and Idiots
“Tyranny naturally arises from democracy.” These are the words of Greek philosopher Plato around 2,400 years ago. It begs the question: Why do we elect idiot leaders? Researchers at Princetown University decided to try and find out. They asked participants to look at the faces of unknown overseas political figures for one second and then guess who won the election. Surprisingly, the participants guessed correctly over 70% of the time based solely on facial features. The same experiment was done with children with similar results.
Another Swiss experiment showed that when choosing between two men to be captain of a boat, one of whom was charismatic and confident that the journey would be successful with calm seas and good weather but had no oceangoing experience, and the other who was a master mariner but was cautious and pointed out all the possible dangers of the voyage, the inexperienced one was chosen presumably due to his confident, positive manner.
Plato was aware of this aspect of human nature 2,400 years ago during the death of democracy in his native Athens. A charismatic general named Alcibiades lost 40,000 of his soldiers after promising easy fast conquests and huge riches, with persuasive speech and empty promises. People chose charismatic leaders who often used lies, exaggeration and repetition to persuade people to their views. The more lies are repeated, the quicker they are accepted as truths.
It seems that not much has changed in 2026. We see the ill-considered illegal war in Iran, started with the promise of a quick victory after the decapitation of the leadership. It would be a war lasting a few weeks and America and Israel would be finally free from the threat of that ‘evil’ country. “We will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons,” they shouted, two countries with enough nuclear warheads to destroy the world in an instant. Why, I ask, do we elect idiot leaders, who are good at winning votes but terrible at governance? It seems that looks, charisma, confidence and the public’s acceptance of repeated lies win out over research, knowledge, logic, analysis and wisdom.
Part of the empty rhetoric comes in the form of slogans. “Take back control” was the slogan used in the UK by the pro-Brexit lobby during the referendum on whether to leave the European Union. It was short and simple, without explaining the finer detail and the probable consequences. Many responded favourably to this simplistic message but, after Britain exited the EU, complained that they weren’t aware of the wider issues at the time of voting.
And of course there’s MAGA, ‘Make America great again’, created by a man who claims to be the world’s best at making a deal, but who had no experience in politics when elected. A man who said he would end the Ukraine war on day one of his presidency. Four and a half years later we’re still waiting, Donald. Most of us know that his chaotic rhetoric is either lies or bluster. Even his supporters know this, but justify it with inane phrases like “He’s just being Donald” or “He’s a good businessman” when confronted with evidence of his corruption. ”We don’t care how much money he has.” The question must be asked: Why does confidence, charisma, wealth and power open the way to people accepting illegal and/or immoral behaviour without accountability?
Plato asked another obvious question. “Why do we treat leading a country as the only job requiring no qualifications?” We certainly wouldn’t want a ‘doctor’ with no formal qualifications to operate on our haemorrhoids, or an untrained pilot to fly us across the ditch and land in heavy rain. And yet we allow people often with zero qualifications or experience to be elected to govern our countries, one of whom is even authorised to have his chubby little fingers on the nuclear button. Tell me that’s not a scary thought.
The US president is what you might call a sophist, ‘someone who uses clever but intellectually dishonest or deceptive arguments to win a debate rather than to seek the truth’.
Sophists are confident, giving simple solutions because they haven’t studied deeply enough the complexities of their role nor do they know what they don’t know. Many of us like simple solutions, me included, so it is easy for a sophist to take control.
Plato wanted leaders who had spent years studying the foundations of governing, economics, diplomacy, philosophy, ethics, and mathematics, people who understood the difference between knowledge and opinion. He abhorred the sophists of his time, who created chaos which eventually led to their demise and the death of democracy in Greece. Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried.” If this is true, one wonders which system the US will adopt if the present slide away from democracy prevails.
It is said that people elect the leaders they deserve. I don’t know what America did to deserve Donald Trump, who in my opinion would have been better suited to running a business like Epstein’s island. Here in Aotearoa we elected the CEO of a large company whose vast business experience may not be enough to run a country without him also possessing the other skills that Plato outlined. No doubt we will find out this November.
The Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman maintains our brains run on two systems. System 1 is fast automatic and runs on emotion and instinct. System 2 is slow, deliberate and runs on logic and analysis. It involves conscious effort and energy to handle complex problem-solving. Plato was undoubtedly aware of this and indeed his mentor Socrates was killed simply because he operated under System 2 and often asked questions that powerful people didn’t like. There seems to be a similar but less fatal situation developing in the US with TV hosts being ousted, news outlets being censored or amalgamated into huge pro-government media corporations, legal firms being blacklisted, to name a few. Let’s hope similar trends don’t develop here.
So, as in Plato’s time, democracy today continues to reward idiots. We seem to be becoming less and less enquiring, analytical, and logical. With social media giving us a plethora of brief information bytes to suit our ever-decreasing attention spans, it’s easier to skim over real issues or treat them with more emotion than logic.
Perhaps it’s time we elected people who have done the hard mahi (work) for us and become masters in the knowledge of governance, people who, like a qualified experienced surgeon, can identify a problem and cut out the bad bits while saving the bits needed for improvement. Of course, experience is only gained by practice, but let’s educate our future politicians in the art of governance and Plato’s other required subjects before they enter the political fray. Perhaps it’s time we adopted Kahneman’s System 2 in our education system and encouraged critical thinking and complex problem-solving involving cooperation instead of rote learning. It may help open a way towards creating an even better system than democracy. Plato would be pleased.
Reference: Why Democracy Rewards Idiots — Plato Saw It Coming 2,400 Years ago – Youtube
Words by Ross Liggins
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