Guiding Our Childlike Hearts

Claire Satchwell

In Plato’s “Democracy and the Democratic Man,” his teacher Socrates presents his interpretation of democracy and oligarchy and the problems they create in a society. The main problem that Socrates saw with democratic culture was the unbalanced distribution of wealth, which made citizens lazy and weak. The corruption in democratic culture that Socrates describes can also be found in recent politics. For example, in 2015 New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez was put on trial for participating in political corruption to accumulate wealth. The case ended in a mistrial in 2017 after the jury was unable to reach an agreement. We should follow the teachings of Socrates and Plato, so we can fix the problems with democratic culture in order to prevent the abuse of power similar to the Menendez trial. In order to do this, all citizens need to work on becoming humans who place their hearts under the guidance of their minds. Others see this as the citizen becoming a machine and crushing individuality. Such are the thoughts of two prominent writers, Cornel West and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed that the heart should always be in control. However, I think democratic culture would grow more if citizens held back their desires and listened to logic. It would enable a society to thoughtfully think out their actions while still being capable of kindness. Logical thinking would allow people would then be able to get past petty arguments and put their energy towards things that would help their community. This is only possible once emotions and appetites become secondary to the wisdom of the mind.

Democratic culture is destined to fail when built on a corrupt oligarchy. For Socrates, the beginning of the cycle of a corrupt oligarchy starts with the accumulation of wealth in only certain parts of the community. Oligarchy is “a form of government in which a small number of immensely wealthy people rule, usually for the purpose of making themselves richer” (Jacobus 56). In other words, the financially powerful bend and break rules in order to acquire more wealth while enforcing the very rules they break onto the poor. Socrates states that “The power of the ruling class is due to its wealth, [and] they will not want to have laws restraining prodigal young men from ruining themselves by extravagance” (Plato 57). Wealthy citizens will fight to protect laws that allow their habits of wastefulness to continue and encourage the spreading of corruption to their followers. Without this protection, the lifestyle of the rich would be destroyed and they would be unable to pass on their beliefs. They imprint their beliefs on the young men in their society and brainwash them into becoming exact replicas of themselves. Socrates calls these rich people drones, and as their name implies, compares them to drone bees. In nature, the drone bees’ only function is to reproduce. The drones/wealthy leaders offer honey to younger men and once they taste “the honey of the drones and [keep] company with those dangerous and cunning creatures, who know how to purvey pleasure in all their multitudinous variety, then the oligarchical constitution of this soul begins to turn into democracy” (60). The drones brainwash the young men into repeating the acts of the corrupted and teach them to give into their desires and passions. The young man’s soul is then transformed and twisted into a human that listens only to its heart.

Once the young men only answer to the passions of their hearts their souls becomes democratic, and they turn into lazy creatures who sit around accumulating wealth. As a result, a rift is created between classes as the wealthy only get wealthier. The poor suffer under the rich, and unrest soon begins to rise as they realize the unfairness of the drones’ actions. Eventually, the poor revolt and rise up to correct the drones’ wrongdoings and bring righteousness. In most revolutions, the revolts only end once the leaders in the oligarchy were put to death. The drones would be killed off, and the poor would finally be able to create the democracy they desired. However, Socrates explains that because of human nature, once again a certain few would gain advantages and begin to accumulate wealth, bringing us back to the beginning of the cycle. Socrates argues that a democracy will always turn back into oligarchy, and the oligarchy will always fail no matter how many revolutions take place. The cycle will always go back to where it started and continue to repeat until a more successful form of government is created.

While Socrates discusses the causes of a failed democracy and the effects of its failure, not all his ideas fit with modern examples of political corruption. According to Socrates, drones came from a wealthy family whose parents did not raise their child properly. However, in the world today, it isn't always the family members that corrupt their young; they can be influenced by anyone with money. In 2015, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and Doctor Salomon Melgen were put on trial for using their friendship as a mean to an end. Phil Kerpen, a reporter from the New York Post, stated that Menendez was indicted of pressuring “the State Department to deliver a Dominican port-security contract and [pressing] the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve the massive Medicare overbilling scheme” (Kerpen, New York Post). Because of this, Melgen was then able to overbill customers without consequences. He used his friend’s name as a threat to those who didn't do what he asked and kept the victims silent. Menendez was also accused of getting visas for a number of Melgen's female ‘visitors.’ In return, Melgen treated Menendez to trips in private jets and luxurious villas in the Caribbean.

The two were in a Quid pro Quo relationship in which one person would do something to benefit the other and gain a reward in return. Phil Kerpen continued to explain that during the trial, “Menendez admitted that he provided visas for Melgen’s girlfriends, intervened on the port-security contract and demanded HHS allow Melgen to keep overbilling Medicare. But they are innocent, the defense says, because the government is trying to criminalize friendship” (Kerpen). This should not be argued by the defense during the trial, because based on evidence, these actions were clearly done in order to gain an advantage. Some argued that they were giving friendly favors, but this would only be valid if they doing it legally and were not in a place of political power. Using one's political power to abuse others and bend the rules for a select few breaks down the walls of democracy and results in corruption.

Revisiting the ideas of Socrates, he articulated that drones came from a wealthy family which corrupted the young. However, in the example of the Menendez trial, Senator Menendez came from a middle class family whose family had immigrated from Cuba. This starkly contrasts Socrates’s idea of how a failed democracy starts. It doesn't matter whether you are raised by a rich or poor family, it all matters who you are influenced by. A poor family could have the same desires and appetites as a rich family, but the difference is the poor are unable to carry them out because of their financial situation. They have the same capability of becoming drones as the rich, because their appetites are passed onto their offspring. Young children are easily imprinted upon and can be influenced by others around them, not just their family. The children of poor see the actions of wealthy people and have no trouble learning and repeating them. Drones come looking for these children and trap them by giving them a taste of the good life. Socrates’s argument that drones are produced from rich homes is flawed; it isn't always a family member. However, I do agree with Socrates that the influencer must be wealthy. In order to corrupt the young, drones must be able to offer them a taste of riches and fame. Senator Robert Menendez was corrupted not by his family, but his rich friend Dr. Melgen. Menendez, and succumbed to the ways of the drone and fell prey to the ways of the corrupted.

Realizing that democracy still contains corruption, all citizens must become better versions of themselves by listening first to reasoning and then consult their passions. Unlike Socrates, Philosopher Cornel West believes that democracy is the only way a group a people can survive and that it must be fixed, not destroyed. He believes that democracy is the only successful way a group of people can thrive and grow. West elaborates by quoting Ralph Emerson, who believes that we must be learn from the poor and that “democracy is...more profoundly about the individuals being empowered and enlightened (and suspicious of authorities) in order to help create and sustain a genuine democratic community.. .’’(West 116). Emerson and West both advocate for a society that is driven by its hearts and passions in order for citizens to become enlightened and empowered. Without these passions, they argue that society wouldn't be able to evolve properly. Emerson argues that a democratic society must “...continuously create new attitudes, new vocabularies , new outlooks, and new visions.” (West 114). West and Emerson’s democracy is one that always changes to better suit the desires and passions of the people. However, Socrates believes that this is exactly why democracy fails, because the people are told to follow their desires and passions in order to create the world they want. A society that is empowered by its passions will only become broken and end in revolt, because eventually the people will want more and more change until everything has been destroyed. Revolution is always short lived, because the poor and wealthy will once again separate, resulting in the repeat of the cycle of a corrupt democracy. As a citizen of a democratic culture, I believe it is not the democracy that needs to change, but the origin of where our instructions on how to act come from. We must train ourselves to let our minds guide our passions. Our mind acts as a parent to our childlike hearts, who thinks it know what it wants. The parents are wiser and do their best to guide the desires of the heart. I imagine our hearts as a child who wants to eat nothing but candy and never do homework again, and the parents come along and plainly tell them no. The child begs, because they truly believe that eating candy for the rest of their life and being lazy will not cause any harm, but the parents direct them on a path they might not like at the moment but that will benefit them in the end. Our minds have a greater wisdom than our hearts, which makes it more qualified to be in charge. Sometimes our heart gets confused and doesn't really know what it wants until the mind comes along and directs it on the right path. The failure in a democratic society comes from people who follow their desires and claim that those who follow their minds are not being true to themselves. What your heart wants and who you are on the outside is passing. You are allowed to change and tattoo up the outside and give into your appetites, but inside is something that knows what you really want, your mind. Just like a parent, your mind knows what will help you in end, even though it doesn't quite make sense to our childlike hearts. As members in a democratic culture, we must put our minds in charge so we can stop being controlled by our passions. We have to learn to put aside what we want and learn to place others above ourselves instead of being so focused on our own freedom. The only way to do this is to curb the passions of the heart and take time to listen to what our mind has to say. Our world today constantly fights for freedom and expression of our individual passions, but instead of becoming more free citizens are only more trapped, and they continue to wonder why the world isn't what they what it to be.

Works Cited

Corasaniti, Nick, and Nate Schweber. “Corruption Case Against Senator Menendez Ends in Mistrial.” 'The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2017

Kerpen, Phil. “Menendez Has Set a New Low for Blatant Corruption in the US.” New York Post, New York Post, 30 Sept. 2017