Criticism-9

Essentially he is right—is he not?—what this world needs is to be ruled by its wisest men. 

It is our business to adapt his thought to our own times and limitations. 

Today we must take democracy for granted: 

we cannot limit the suffrage as Plato proposed; 

but we can put restrictions on the holding of office, and in this way secure that mixture of democracy and aristocracy which Plato seems to have in mind. 

We may accept without quarrel his contention that statesmen should be as specifically and thoroughly trained as physicians; 

we might establish departments of political science and administration in our universities; 

and when these departments have begun to function adequately we might make men ineligible for nomination to political office unless they were graduates of such political schools. 

We might even make every man eligible for an office who had been trained for it, and thereby eliminate entirely that complex system of nominations in which the corruption of our democracy has its seat: 

let the electorate choose any man who, properly trained and qualified, announces himself as a candidate. 

In this way democratic choice would be immeasurably wider than now, when Tweedledum and Tweedledee stage their quadrennial show and sham. 

Only one amendment would be required to make quite democratic this plan for the restriction of office to graduates in administrative technique; 

and that would be such equality of educational opportunity as would open to all men and women, irrespective of the means of their parents, the road to university training and political advancement. 

It would be very simple to have municipalities and counties and states offer scholarships to all graduates of grammar school, high school and college who had shown a certain standard of ability, and whose parents were financially unable to see them through the next stage of the educational process. 

That would be a democracy worthy of the name. 

Finally, it is only fair to add that Plato understands that his Utopia does not quite fall within the practicable realm. 

He admits that he has described an ideal difficult of attainment; 

he answers that there is nevertheless a value in painting these pictures of our desire; 

man's significance is that he can image a better world, and will some part of it at least into reality; 

man is an animal that makes Utopias. 

"We look before and after and pine for what is not." 

Nor is it all without result: 

many a dream has grown limbs and walked, or grown wings and flown, like the dream of Icarus that men might fly.

[ 02’35” ] democracy (辜鸿铭，1857 -1928 年，一生致力于中西文化的沟通并诉诸于翻译事业，其认为英文 democracy（民主），乃是 democrazy（民主疯狂），并提出“人存政举，人亡政息”的政治观点。) 

[ 03’24” ] accept without quarrel (完全接受……) 

[ 03’34” ] contention (观点) 

[ 04’08” ] function (运作) 

[ 04’23” ] ineligible (不符合) 

[ 04’38” ] political schools (政治学院，19世纪20年代欧洲以贵族制为主，还没有政治学院。) 

[ 05’00” ] The Remains of the Day (《告别有情天》) 

[ 06’50” ] Tweedledum and Tweedledee (张三李四，半斤八两；难以区别的两件事或两个人) 

[ 07’09” ] quadrennial (每四年一次的大选) 

[ 07’58” ] irrespective (不考虑的) 

[ 08’30” ] municipality (市政当局) 

[ 09’45” ] ... worthy of the name (名副其实的……) 

[ 10’01” ] it is only fair to (一定要公正地说一下) 

[ 10’27” ] attainment (获取到的东西；成就) 

[ 11’15” ] will (让……实现) 

[ 11’56” ] pine for (渴望；找寻)