The Naked Socialist

by Paul B Skousen

  Lycurgus also decided it was a good thing to confiscate the land from the rich. He divided it into 30,000 equal plots that were distributed to the general population so they could have all things in common. He confiscated all the people’s gold and silver, and issued an iron coin that was intrinsically useless. The idea was to keep money invested internally to prevent foreign influences and commerce from corrupting their ideal society.

  The council of 30 included Sparta’s two demigod kings, a pair of men who traced their genealogy to Hercules, son of Zeus, a divine hero in Greek mythology. The two kings were equal in power and ruled at the same time. The rulers wanted a simple society, an agricultural collective, so they made any kind of industry forbidden.

  Lycurgus’s institutions eventually led to a stable government and a foundation from which Sparta could rise. But, at what cost?

  Raising Warriors

  There were only two types of people who could have tombstones in Sparta—a warrior who died in battle, or a mother who died in child birth. Both were honorable sacrifices of giving one’s all for the benefit of state. Because the Spartans viewed children as products of the state, rearing them was not the job of the parents, not for the family, but rightly for the state. Serving the state was the first priority in all things. Therefore, if a newborn was deemed too weak to grow into a good warrior or sturdy mother, the state determined it should be left alone to die.

  Rearing a warrior began early. At age seven the boys were taken from their mothers and enrolled in a rigorous education and military training system called the Agoge. It included reading, writing, music, and dancing. Military training included self-survival techniques, living in the wild, making do without any help, cutting reeds for a bed or shelter, hunting for food, creating weapons, etc. Often they were underfed to encourage creativity on how to steal food.

  Sometimes they were flogged as a group to see which of them would be the first to cry out or pass out. Their families could watch the floggings at the wayside, and would shout to them not to pass out or cry or shed tears. The toughest was honored by everyone.

  This whole structure of society was designed to strip people of their individual identity—to cement the idea that they were nothing more than tools of society.

  All Control in the State

  By age 12, the boys had to take an older male mentor who functioned as a substitute father and role model. Sexual relations between the two usually followed. At age 18, they were in the military reserve, and by age 20, they joined a group of 15 others to bond with and rely on for times of war.

  Marriage was encouraged at age 20, but the men did not live with their families until age 30. For those reluctant to tie the knot, marriage was required by age 30, like it or not.

  Young Spartans were granted land to work, and were forbidden from engaging in commerce or trade. Their houses had to be crude, built only with an axe to discourage time-wasting labors to beautify or sculpt the interiors. The women enjoyed more freedoms than others of that time, and were allowed to own properties as rewards for valiance, and were treated as equal with men in divorce. Despite Lycurgus’s efforts at things in common, some scholars estimate that women ended up owning 35 percent of all the land plots and other property in Sparta.

  Other Classes in Sparta

  The rest of the Spartan society included the free men—people who escaped the original Dorian invaders but still lived in Sparta.

  At the bottom of society were the Greek slaves from Laconia. They were called Helots, and were wholly owned by the state. The Helots farmed the soil but were required to surrender the produce to the state—sometimes all of it, with nothing for themselves.

  Young Spartan warriors just graduating from military school practiced their arts on Helots. Each autumn, the Spartans declared war on the Helots and sent their young soldiers-in-training to slay rebellious slaves. This annual “thinning” of the ranks kept the Helots submissive and deprived of their own leaders and warriors.

  Socialist and Regimented

  All land in Sparta was owned and assigned to others by the state. A citizen’s place in that society was determined at birth, and any commerce or trade with the “outside” was outlawed. Like all socialistic societies, most of the mandated restrictions could be conveniently set aside in favor of the class of elites as rewards for their birth, status, or loyalty.

  Destroying Family to Keep Power

  The Spartans prevented rebellion and uprising by breaking apart associations. They started with the family in its formative years, sending boys to the Agoge, forming men into “syssitia” or eating/bonding groups that met nightly, and uniting the women in groups while their husbands were away fighting. Slave families were left intact and sold or rented with the land—other times they were broken up according to the needs of the state.

  The Seven Pillars of Socialism

  Spartans were religious and turned to the Oracle at Delphi for guidance. This had been a Greek tradition since about 1400 B.C.,129and helped sustain the deification of its two rulers. This practice was not unique to Sparta, but was common around the world. The rulers loved it because it simplified the chore of winning complete obedience from the people. By making himself an object of worship, a ruler could control the beliefs and knowledge of the people, keep order, and stay in power.

  The belief or at least the superstition that Sparta’s leaders were called by God continues down to this present day. Kings and queens make the same claim, confessing obedience to God for his holy ratification of their lofty place, bowing as if in a sacrament of holy communion, a tradition that their adoring crowds accept with reverence. Whatever edicts such kings and queens utter must then be accepted as divinely inspired, it is their divine right of kings. The Chinese made similar claims, calling theirs the Mandate from Heaven with similar responsibilities and authority.

  Guns vs Butter ... or, Slavery vs Starvation

  Perhaps in that hand-to-mouth bare subsistence level of existence, the routine politics of human organization didn’t matter as much as did the acquisition of food for an empty stomach. People who are starving generally don’t care who feeds them, not in the pain of the moment, perhaps. But the undying traits of human nature simmered from warm to hot in Spartan society. Their ancient records indicate that every effort was exhaustively pursued to coerce human behavior to support the state above their own personal interests.

  And then, after a long time, came a new son of Greece, a thinker, a teacher, a student, a writer named Plato, revered by some as the scholarly father of western culture. But to others, the father of the bad idea—

  * * *

  129 See John P. McKay, Bennett D. Hill, John Buckler, A History of World Societies, 1996; The Encyclopedia Britannica, Sparta, 13th Edition, 1926.

  Chapter 17: Plato and His Republic

  Plato is among the impassioned few who received a lot of press for ideas that appealed more to meeting immediate lapses in society than promoting long-term solutions.

  Plato (427-347 B.C.) was born in Athens, and is remembered for ideas he expressed in “The Republic” and “The Laws.” He was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of one of the first schools of higher learning in the Western world called the Academy in Athens. He had good company in those days with his mentor Socrates and his student Aristotle. Their combined works helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.

  Plato wrote his ten-volume work, “The Republic,” during his middle years in an attempt to depict the ideal state-controlled society. His only problem was how to get the people to cooperate with his plan. His suggestion was to allow nature to serve as the sifter of souls, choosing out natural leaders and natural followers. “The Laws” was written in his older years depicting his best estimation of how these ideals would be put into practice.130

  Ruler—As for the leaders, Plato saw
the rise of what he called philosopher kings, men who were smarter than everybody else. Because of their brilliance, they were naturally endowed with the wisdom to wield unlimited powers of control over everyone. Their duty to the state was to focus all their energies on leadership service, and then spend time studying mankind’s place in the universe.

  Soldiers—Plato envisioned a class of guardians programmed to be helpful to friends but vicious to enemies. As true warriors they would never criticize the leaders, but simply take orders and fear no death. From childhood onward, guardians were to be taught myths that programmed them to be ever faithful to the state. To maintain the mirage, they couldn’t be taught anything about divinity, stories of the gods, or the injustice of fate. Plato said that any soldiers who became greedy and desired property would be bred out so those remaining would live exclusively for the state.

  The artisans and peasants—This class did all the work, as nature dictated it. They were to be ruled by the other two groups, and were expected to die in defense of the city. If the peasants could be properly trained from their youth upward, they wouldn’t complain.

  The beehive mentality—In short, Plato wanted human personality and egoism to be reduced to the robotic, instinctive placidity of ants in an ant hill or bees in a beehive—but not through force. The idea was to change human nature from within, with conditioning and education.

  Plato on Submission: “In a word, [man] should teach his soul, by long habit, never to dream of acting independently, and to become utterly incapable of it.”131

  Plato on Socialism: “Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.” 132

  “The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.” 133

  “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”134

  “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.”135

  Plato on Lying: “Then if anyone at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good.”136

  Plato on Predestination: “You are brothers, yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power to command, and in these he has mingled gold ... others he has made of silver [to be soldiers] ... and others again he has composed of brass and iron [the common people] ... a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son.”137

  Plato on Laws: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”138

  Plato on Suppressing Initiative: “All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.”139

  “For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”140

  Plato on Death: “No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”141

  Plato on Cultivating Ignorance: “Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.”142

  The Founders Dismissed Plato’s Ideas

  The Founding Fathers were students of freedom. With the play of history laid out before them, they could plainly see the futility of Plato’s best laid plans to replace freedom with the seven bad ideas.

  Thomas Jefferson: “While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of [Plato’s] work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this. ...His foggy mind is forever presenting the semblances of objects which, half seen through a mist, can be defined neither in form nor dimensions.”143

  John Adams: “My disappointment was very great, my astonishment was greater, my disgust shocking .... His Laws and his Republic, from which I expected most, disappointed me most.”144

  Thomas Jefferson: “The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child, but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them; and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained.”145

  Thomas Jefferson: “It is fortunate for us that Platonic republicanism has not obtained the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all living, men, women and children, pell mell together, like beasts of the field or forest.”146

  Plato’s Seven Pillars

  The writings of Plato reveal his vision of how the seven pillars would best function in society. The ruling class answered to no one. With no lies allowed, except by the ruler to achieve some ultimate goal, the free-flow of information would remain suspect at all times. The caste was a permanent part of Plato’s society as a means to keep the feeble-minded in their places, and the overly aggressive people in theirs. All things in common was the ultimate goal, and having sufficient force to fully smother all other rights was to be upheld by the warriors.

  As with all schemers envisioning their idea of the perfect society, Plato fell far short from reconciling irrepressible human nature with his utopian application of force to control and change the world.

  * * *

  130 Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, 3:510-511, Plato.

  131 Plato, The Republic, see Karl Raimund Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Plato; 1962, pp. 7, 90 (Chapter 6/notes 34).

  132 Plato, The Republic, Book IV, Great Books of the Western World, p. 342.

  133 Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Vol. IV, The Laws, 1908, p. 208.

  134 Op. cit., Vol. III, The Republic, p. 455.

  135 Plato, translated by Sir Henry Desmond Lee, Part VII [Book V], p. 191-192 (473 d-e).

  136 Plato, The Republic, Book III, Great Books of the Western World, p. 326.

  137 Ibid., pp. 340-341.

  138 Quotation frequently attributed to Plato, but not yet sourced.

  139 Plato, The Republic, Book II, Wordsworth Classics, p. 51 (369d-370d).

  140 Plato, The Republic, Book IV, Wordsworth Classics, p. 118 (423a-424d).

  141 Plato, Apology, Classics of Western Philosophy, 6th ed., 2002, p. 35 (29a).

  142 Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. IV, translated by Benjamin Jowett, p. 332 (p. 819).

  143 Thomas Jefferson, Bergh, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:147-149.

  144 John Adams, Howe, The Changing Political Thought of John Adams, p. 382.

  145 H. Colburn and R. Bentley, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1829, p. 242.

  146 Ibid.

  Chapter 18: India and the Caste

  Roll the dice, show up among a family of untouchables and suffer the consequences—or, live right and be reborn a king or queen, it’s the way things worked among the Indian Hindus.

  Story: Beginning some time before 2500 B.C., the ancient empire of the Indus River Valley apparently was the largest on earth, looming larger than Egypt and Mesopotamia. Sometime around 1500 B.C., this empire came to an end—legend and myth point to Aryan troops raining down on the empire. However it happened, an attack was so severe, the record says, that tens of thousands of the dead were left strewn in the streets of several abandoned
cities.

  Surviving the assault were the populations in the southern regions. They escaped the attack, organized themselves, and built a society based on a caste system. By the 5th century B.C., the caste was deeply entrenched. For the arbitrary reasons of birth, they firmly believed a child was locked into permanent and limited choices of friends, food, jobs, marriage, housing, associations, and most other aspects of life. It worked because their belief system declared birth was not arbitrary—it was all cause and effect, the result of behavior during prior lives.

  Four Castes

  India had thousands of castes over the centuries. Today, four major groups survive. At the top are the spiritual leaders, the Brahman priests. The warrior and aristocracy follows second. The merchants follow third, with the Sundras or the laborers last. Excluded from these are the outcasts, a group set apart by themselves consisting of the poor, the diseased or those otherwise rejected from society.

  Regimenting Life

  A mosaic of religions called Hinduism, and India’s ancient caste system, were intimately involved in almost every aspect of a person’s life. The system strictly regulated the labor force at all levels. It set boundaries for marriage, ordered obeisance at the feet of those of the higher classes, itemized the foods that could be grown and consumed, predetermined jobs, housing, travel, communications, and more. Attempting to break loose from that regime could cost a man and his family their lives. The lower classes usually had no hope of ever changing jobs, improving their lives, or altering their future.147

  Guilds and Unions

  Most of India’s early population was concentrated in villages that generally were isolated, but quite self-sufficient. They took care of their own food and nutritional needs with routines of daily chores that kept the majority of people busy and employed.