The, Democracy, And Leadership - 1486 Words

We have argued in this course that there is nothing more paradoxical than the focus and emphasis of Ancient Political Thought in Greek culture. Of course, this may be because of our modern preoccupation of our current political foundation have lead us to believe that people associate democracy and leadership as an antidote to conflict and corruption. This may also be the case since Greek culture illustrates that the polis was the final form of political association during the time when Aristotle was setting out his ideas. But even if this was the case, there is still much about politics we can learn. Despite the current understandings surrounding leadership and democracy as an antidote to stasis, it will be argued that both of these ideas†¦show more content†¦In addition, the metaphoric of the ship points to the way that the antidotes of stasis, democracy and leadership, would actually be considered as anarchy in modern times, and therefore the ship represents a conflict to democracy or an undemocratic polis. To summarize and give context behind the ship, we are going to be taking a look at this very famous metaphor for the state. This ship has a pilot, and the Greek word for pilot is kubernà ©tà ©s , which is also the root for our word for Governor. The pilot steers the ship as they are in charge of the ship. Socrates’ story is meant to illustrate the real world of actual politics in the city. The city, polis, is like a ship, and the ship is owned by an ignorant man who knows nothing about seamanship. As a direct result of this, these sailors on the ship are left to their own devices, and do fight among themselves to see who will gain control of the rudder and therefore would become the pilot of that ship. The sailor who wins this competition against other sailors would become the pilot. The real thrust of the parable is that the person who is good at winning the competition to gain the rudder of the ship and become the pilot knows nothing about seamanship. Though the true pilot who is a person genuinely knowledgeable about how to steer the ship is both unconcerned with the other sailor and the