2019-04-06
CHAPTER ONE: Plato II. Socrates
Is it not a base superstition that mere numbers will give wisdom? On the contrary is it not universally seen that men in crowds are more foolish and more violent and more cruel than men separate and alone?
*【夏鹏赏析】一个人在群体中会更愚蠢更暴力，乌合之众。
Is it not shameful that men should be ruled by orators（演说家，中性偏贬）, who "go ringing on in long harangues（激烈的演讲）, like brazen pots which, when struck, continue to sound till a hand is put upon them"?
Surely the management of a state is a matter for which men cannot be too intelligent, a matter that needs the unhindered（没有阻碍和限制） thought of the finest minds.
How can a society be saved, or be strong, except it be led by its wisest men?
Imagine the reaction of the popular party at Athens to this aristocratic gospel at a time when war seemed to require the silencing of all criticism, and when the wealthy and lettered minority were plotting a revolution.
Consider the feelings of Anytus, the democratic leader whose son had become a pupil of Socrates, and had then turned against the gods of his father, and laughed in his father's face. Had not Aristophanes（一位讽刺作家） predicted precisely such a result from this specious replacement（似是而非的替代） of the old virtues by unsocial intelligence?
*我们是否有勇气做格格不入的人？
