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Jan. 19th, 2014|06:42 pm |
‘Well, Hiero,’ Simonides replied, ‘your current state of depression about tyranny doesn’t surprise me, since you think it stops you achieving your goal of being liked by people. I think I can teach you, however, that rulership does not prevent you being liked and that in fact you’re better off than ordinary citizens in this respect. In considering whether or not I’m right, let’s ignore for the time being the issue of whether the greater power a ruler wields means that he can also confer a greater number of favours; what I want us to do instead is imagine an ordinary citizen and a tyrant performing the same service and then try to see which of them would win more gratitude from their identical acts.
‘I’ll start with the most trivial examples and go on from there.
Imagine, first, a ruler and an ordinary citizen catching sight of someone and greeting him in a friendly fashion. In this example, whose greeting, do you think, would be more welcome? Now let’s have both of them complimenting the man. Whose compliments would afford more pleasure, do you think? Suppose each of them honours the man with an invitation to a sacrificial feast. Whose invitation would be more gratefully received, in your opinion? Imagine both of them looking after a sick man. Isn’t it obvious that the more powerful the person, the more his ministrations will delight the patient? Now let’s have them giving identical presents. Isn’t the answer obvious in this case too? The most powerful members of society could be half as generous as an ordinary person, and their gifts would still count for more.
‘In fact I’d go so far as to say that the gods cause a kind of aura of dignity and grace to surround a ruler. Not only does authority make a man more prepossessing, but despite the fact that it’s still the same person, we also get more pleasure from seeing him when he is in a position of authority than we did when he was an ordinary citizen, and it’s more of a thrill to talk to eminent members of society than it is to talk to our social equals.
[Ksenofōns, Hiero the Tyrant, Ch. VIII]
oudžejs uz šito būtu teicis: redzi, jānīt, lai būtu par autoritāti, vispirms tev ir jābūt autōram, nutātakšir, ja? pa priekšu ir kaut kas jārada. tad to var parādīt citiem un ļaut brīvi izlemt, vai tu viņiem esi autoritāte vai nē. un ciktāl.
ja mēs automātā uzticamies papīra autoritātei, vienalga, vai akreditēta diplōma, deputāta mandāta vai pagaidām konvertējamu papīrīšu paskatā, baidos, veči, ka joprojām esam ceturtajā klasē un pēc stundām uz pagraba palodzēm spēlējam faņķikus. laiks tā kā bij iet tālāk |
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