One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
From here.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
That sums up the conservative/libertarian position pretty well – politics in self-defense. Contrast this with the liberal/left side, who engage in it in order to replace society’s bus and errors with new ones of their own devising, which then in turn need to be replaced, ad nauseum.
From what I know about Plato’s anti-freedom politics, I wonder if this quote is accurate. The site you referenced says it’s Plato but doesn’t say from where, which is sloppy at best.
Maybe it’s not Plato, which makes me feel better suggesting a better final word to that quote would be “enemies.”
“You end up being governed by your inferiors” is also an effete, ivory tower expression. I’d look up Daniel Patrick Moynihan and see if he made that up. Maybe Marie Antoinette might also have said it, since it goes perfectly with “let them eat cake”.
Oh, I don’t know. “Inferiors” seems to describe Congress pretty well.
Was it Mencken who said “since the opposite of ‘pro’ is ‘con’, the opposite of ‘progress’ is …” ?
If my “inferiors” (there would be many ways to define that word, methinks) effectively uphold and protect the American principles of liberty, I’d be fine with letting them govern. So yes; I think “enemies” is a better fit.
Then there is the late, great Douglas Adams’ take on it. “Those who most want to rule are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Therefore anyone capable of getting themselves elected president should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Any way you look at it, it comes down to principles and courage.