The Fear of God

JUNE 11 The Fear of God Plato (428-348 BC) is regarded as one of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece, the other two being Socrates and Aristotle. The book for which Plato is best remembered, titled the ‘Republic’ and written in the form of a dialogue, is on the subject of the Ideal State. In Plato’s view, “Unless philosophers bear kingly rule... or those who are now called kings and princes become genuine and adequate philosophers, there will be no respite from evil.” Throughout the ages, many individuals, who have come to be known as philosopher-kings (or queens) have assumed power, e.g. the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Russian Queen Catherine II, King Frederick II of Prussia, the Macedonian King Demetrius and the contemporary ruler of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. But none has measured up to the standard of the good ruler as presented by Plato. There were certain pupils of the Greek philosophers who attained to kingship. For example, Alexander the Great was taught by Aristotle, and Demetrius was trained in Aristotle’s school of thought. Yet these philosopher-rulers were no better than others. As Peter Green puts it: “What happened was, nothing happened... Power, it appeared, could corrupt even philosophers.” (Times Magazine, May 13, 1991) According to Karl Marx’s theory, the root of all evil was the economic system based on ownership, according to which those who were owners exploited those who were not, in very much the same way as a despot would oppress his subjects. It was thought that if the system of individual ownership were to be replaced by that of collective ownership, all kinds of oppression and exploitation could be uprooted. There would then be neither the owner or the owned, and no group or individual would be able to exploit any other group or individual. These ideas led to the marxist revolution in Russia in 1917, whereupon the system of state-ownership was introduced by force. However, as events unfolded, it became apparent that in the guise of the no-ownership system, this had become the most tyrannical regime in modern history, the rulers proving to be the most oppressive and dictatorial ever witnessed. Instead of collective