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The Democratic Soul The watchword of democracy is equality -- every desire, every inclination, every aspiration is considered equal to any other. Thus the democratic soul is unstable, surrendering to and being temporarily dominated by whatever it feels like doing at the moment. Note that the little man, rationality, is at the bottom! Republic, Book 8, 561d: . . . he lives on, yielding day by day to the desire at hand. Sometimes he drinks heavily . . . at other times, he drinks only water and is on a diet . . . sometimes he goes in for exercise . . . sometimes he even occupies himself with what he thinks is philosophy . . . there is neither order nor necessity in his life, but he calls it pleasant, free, and blessedly happy . . . |