The Auron MacIntyre Show - Aristotle Explains How Tyrants Keep Power ｜ 1⧸28⧸26

00:00:00.840 Hey everybody, how's it going? Thanks for joining me this afternoon. I am Oren McIntyre.

00:00:06.940 You know that we are big fans of Aristotle around here. Always enjoy diving into his

00:00:12.920 thought and seeing how we can apply it to the modern day despite being written thousands

00:00:17.280 of years ago. Books like Aristotle's Politics or Ethics, Rhetoric, all remain incredibly

00:00:23.620 important, incredibly prescient. Ones that are still able to be applied in pretty much

00:00:28.640 every situation we look around today. I want to look today at Aristotle's Politics. We're

00:00:34.800 going to be looking at Book 5, Section 11, I believe, Chapter 11, which is his discussion

00:00:40.620 on tyranny. Now, Aristotle in the politics is running through all the different forms of

00:00:46.740 government. Remember, Aristotle believes that there are three main types of government.

00:00:51.640 There's rule of the one, there's rule of the few, and there's rule of the many. And inside

00:00:57.360 of those three categories, there is both good and bad. So for the rule of one, the good,

00:01:04.980 it is the monarch. And he says this is the best form of government. If we have a true

00:01:09.340 good monarch, a true benevolent, wise monarch, this is the best option for all government.

00:01:16.800 But then he says a bad monarch, a tyrant, is the worst of all options. So in rule of the one,

00:01:23.240 we have the best possible outcome and the worst possible outcome, which makes sense.

00:01:27.620 There's only one failure point. It's rule of the one. In rule of the many, we have aristocracy,

00:01:32.580 which is the good version, and oligarchy, which is the bad version. And in each one of these

00:01:37.320 versions, the only real difference is always whether or not the government is ruling on behalf

00:01:42.280 of the people for the good of the greater state, or if it's ruling for their own interests.

00:01:47.600 So in the rule of one, you have the king who's ruling in the interest of the entire country,

00:01:52.980 and then you have the tyrant ruling in their own interests. In the rule of a few, you have the

00:01:57.960 aristocracy, again, ruling for the betterment of the entire nation. And then you have the oligarchy,

00:02:04.020 which is ruling only on behalf of its own interests, its own money, that kind of thing.

00:02:09.320 And then we have the rule of the many. And the better one is the polity. And then the degenerate

00:02:16.940 one is democracy. And so again, it's whether it's a rule in favor of the good of the nation,

00:02:23.440 or whether it's in favor of just whatever the people in charge want. So it's not that democracy

00:02:28.840 or oligarchy or tyranny are somehow better than each other inherently. It's that each one has

00:02:36.420 a version where they rule in favor of the actual general good. And it could be the people,

00:02:43.460 the wider rule of many ruling on behalf of the good, or it could be a single person ruling on

00:02:50.300 behalf of the good and vice versa. Now he does, again, point to the strengths and weaknesses of

00:02:54.920 each. It's not that democracy and tyranny are exactly the same thing. It's not that a polity and

00:03:02.220 a monarchy are exactly the same thing. They each have strengths and weaknesses.

00:03:07.440 But he is saying that generally it's better, no matter what your form of government,

00:03:11.120 to prefer one that is going to rule for the betterment of the entire nation and not just

00:03:17.060 the individual. Now tyranny is obviously the degenerated form of monarchy. It's rule of one

00:03:25.020 for the interests of one. And Aristotle, being a thorough political scientist or what amounts to

00:03:32.940 political science or philosophy at this time, political theory, is going to say, okay, here's

00:03:37.860 what a tyrant should do if they want to keep power. Now you could view this one of two ways. You could

00:03:42.680 say, oh, well, it's satirical or you're just pointing out the way in which the tyrant would rule

00:03:50.060 so you can be aware of these things. He's warning us against these. Or you could say, okay, this is

00:03:54.780 guy just doing real politic and he doesn't like tyranny. But if you're going to be a tyrant,

00:03:59.660 this is the mechanical way you would keep power. It's kind of like Machiavelli, right? Like

00:04:03.600 Machiavelli actually preferred a republic to a monarchy, but he still wrote The Prince, which is

00:04:10.000 his most famous work in which a lot of people assume that because he's giving practical advice to

00:04:15.720 kings, a king is what he would like. But that's not actually the case. And Aristotle here is saying,

00:04:21.200 okay, well, you know, I obviously don't like tyranny. Actually, I think it's the worst form of

00:04:25.240 government. But if you were a tyrant, this is what your playbook would look like. And because this

00:04:30.940 allows us to see the different mechanisms that he thought would be critical for a tyrant to keep

00:04:38.220 power, I think it's useful because we can look at the world around us today, the people in charge,

00:04:43.140 the way our societies function or they want to function and see, you know, what parts of this

00:04:48.400 are we experiencing? What can we tease out of this? How does this impact us today? So that's

00:04:53.420 what we're going to be doing. We're going to read through most of this section and take a look at

00:04:58.140 what Aristotle said. All right. So let's jump in here where we're just going to jump right into where

00:05:06.540 he starts talking about tyrannies. He says, as to tyrannies, they are preserved in two most

00:05:12.720 opposite ways. One of them is the old traditional method in which most tyrants administer their

00:05:19.000 government. Of such arts, Periander of Corinth is said to have been the great master, and many

00:05:26.160 similar devices may be gathered from the Persians in the administration of their government.

00:05:31.620 These are firstly the descriptions mentioned some distance back for the preservation of a tyranny.

00:05:37.580 In so far as this is possible, that the tyrant should lop off those that are too high. He must

00:05:44.000 put to death men of spirit. He must not allow common meals, clubs, education, and the like. He must be 0.98

00:05:50.840 upon his guard against anything which is likely to inspire either courage or confidence in his

00:05:57.880 subjects. All right. So right here, we're seeing a few things the tyrant needs to do right away. First,

00:06:04.540 he needs to get rid of those that are too impressive, too inspiring. He's put to death

00:06:11.820 men of spirit. Why? Because he doesn't want any competition. When you're a tyrant, you're ruling

00:06:17.800 through pure charisma or pure fear, right? You are relying on your dynamic ability as a leader.

00:06:26.720 So you don't want any other competition because you're a tyrant. You're not a monarch. You're ruling

00:06:31.600 for your own interest, not the interest of your people. So your own interests say, I need to be

00:06:35.580 in charge all the time and I'm not going to take any risks with other guys. They might be good for

00:06:40.660 the country. They might be great guys. They might even be great leaders, but they will not be in my

00:06:47.440 in my tyranny because they might outshine me. So I need to put those people to death. I need to run 1.00

00:06:52.340 them out. I need to cut them down. As Aristotle says, he says he must not allow common meals, clubs, 0.70

00:06:59.420 education, and the like. So we don't want people getting together, forming bonds. Common meals in

00:07:06.520 most city states, classic city states, were the way that you bonded the community together. They

00:07:13.260 usually shared a common meal, often sacrificed to the God of the city. And that was considered both a

00:07:19.700 religious and social ritual that bound everyone together and community, made them part of the same

00:07:25.980 tribe, part of the same city, part of the same identity. So we don't want that. We don't want our

00:07:32.120 people to feel unified as a people. We want them to feel separated and isolated. No unity, no common

00:07:40.600 identity, no clubs or education. We don't want educated people. That one's pretty obvious. If I'm a

00:07:46.820 tyrant, I don't want intelligent people. I don't need their input. I'm not going to listen to it

00:07:50.440 anyway. I don't want any of them becoming smart or spirited. That's a threat to my identity. I don't

00:07:56.840 want clubs. I don't want people getting together, organizing, making friends, just like the common

00:08:02.180 meals. The bonds are the problem. By the way, that's why you hear guys like me and Dave Green and

00:08:09.360 Matt Williams all saying, we need to get together in real life. You need to be forming community.

00:08:15.340 You need to be joining clubs, join the old glory club, join exit, join whatever fraternal organization

00:08:21.680 is in your area, work with like-minded people, go to church. The reason is that this is exactly the

00:08:27.840 opposite of what Aristotle says the tyrant wants you to do. How do we oppose tyranny? We're having

00:08:32.920 shared connections, shared identity, shared understandings, being able to work together.

00:08:38.880 And that's exactly what they do not want. That's exactly what a tyrant should oppose. If he is

00:08:45.420 going to stay in power, he must be upon his guard against anything, which is likely to inspire either

00:08:51.440 courage or confidence among his subjects. Again, he cannot allow courage or confidence. You don't want

00:08:57.560 any of those people looking at your tyranny and saying, well, maybe, you know, maybe we could take

00:09:02.760 him. Maybe we could figure out how to get past the guards. Maybe we could figure out how to outfox him.

00:09:07.700 Maybe we could figure out how to depose him. You do not want any of that. You don't want courage.

00:09:12.020 You don't want confidence. You want people scared of you, dependent on you, worried about you.

00:09:16.560 He also says he must prohibit literary assemblies or other meetings for discussion. So we want to

00:09:30.180 make sure just like the clubs and the common meals, we don't have people getting together.

00:09:34.880 They're not enjoying culture, discussing things. It's not it. The culture is the literary and cultural

00:09:42.000 problems are twofold. One, it's going to remind you who you are. All right. You're going to have a

00:09:46.680 more total understanding of the world. You're going to become more complete perspective about

00:09:52.680 your history and your heritage and your traditions and your understanding. They can't just feed you

00:09:57.720 what they want you to believe. You'll be too familiar. And also you'll be getting together with

00:10:02.860 like-minded people and again, building that community. So just like banning the common meals

00:10:06.580 and the clubs, you want to ban those assembly, those literally assemblies, other meetings for

00:10:12.580 discussion. And he must take every means to prevent people from knowing one another for acquaintances

00:10:19.380 to get mutual confidence. Again, isolated, individual, don't be collectivist, be an individual,

00:10:28.360 be an atomized individual. Don't trust anyone else. Don't let anyone trust you. Don't be dependent

00:10:35.660 on anyone else. Don't let anyone else be dependent on you. Don't organize together. Don't think of a

00:10:41.100 common understanding. Don't think of yourselves as having a common identity. Every one of you is an

00:10:46.040 individual. That's what a tyrant wants. He wants individuals who will not work together, not recognize

00:10:52.040 each other, not work towards a common goal. Those are the threats to a tyrant. So he has to make sure

00:10:59.680 it prevents any other way of people knowing each other because that mutual confidence is gained by

00:11:07.520 having those acquaintances, by building those relationships. Further, he must compel all

00:11:13.100 persons staying in the city to appear in public and live at his gates. Then he will know what they

00:11:19.580 are doing. If they are always kept under, they will learn to be humble. So they need to be observed

00:11:26.000 all the time, right? If they were out near the city gates, he can observe them from the palace

00:11:31.400 or from a tower. If they're out further away and their home's hidden, he doesn't know what's going

00:11:36.680 on. So we have to have a constant surveillance. People who are under a constant surveillance,

00:11:42.160 the tyrant will know what they're doing, and they will learn to be humbled by that constant being

00:11:47.260 kept under. Now, of course, today, we don't need that. Many people will, of course, first think of

00:11:53.340 like Bentham's Panopticon and the ability to see every single prisoner in a cell, making sure that

00:12:00.340 every one of these is ultimately visible. But we don't even need that anymore because you have

00:12:05.340 a cell phone and an internet history and all the other ways in which the government can

00:12:10.960 observe you constantly. You're expected to post on social media. You're expected to make certain

00:12:17.580 declarations of allegiances to different causes and understandings. And so that constant pressure

00:12:23.760 that you are being observed on social media through your electronics, CCTV cameras around major

00:12:31.460 cities, you can't do anything. You can't say anything because it might end up getting posted

00:12:37.740 online. So even though the government isn't necessarily theoretically watching you all the time,

00:12:43.640 though maybe they are given the current level of, you know, the current complexity of our

00:12:50.480 technology. But even if they aren't watching all the time, your friends and family and co-workers

00:12:54.840 are. And what if they record something you say and then that ends up on the internet could ruin your

00:13:00.460 life forever? So even though we don't have the city gates here, we certainly have something that's

00:13:06.280 very analogous. In fact, something that probably any tyrant desperately wishes they had had instead of

00:13:11.120 having to force everyone to live near the city gates. In short, he should practice these and like 1.00

00:13:17.100 Persian and barbaric arts, which all have the same object. A tyrant should also endeavor to know what 0.99

00:13:23.460 each of his subjects says or does and should employ spies like the female detectives at Syracuse and

00:13:30.360 the eavesdroppers whom Hiro was in the habit of sending to any place of resort or meeting. For fear of

00:13:38.660 informers prevents people from speaking in their minds. And if they do, they are more easily found

00:13:45.620 out. So you should observe people all the time. But if for some reason you can't, you need to employ

00:13:50.260 a bunch of spies. You need to have this spy network constantly out there looking and hearing and trying

00:13:56.680 to understand. And not only will this give you this constant information, not only will you have

00:14:01.320 that intelligence on what everyone else is doing and be more likely to be able to control it.

00:14:06.360 But in addition to that, the fear of just knowing that those agents could be anywhere will scare

00:14:13.580 everyone into inaction, right? Think about how often you hear we can't organize in real life as

00:14:19.400 right wing people because there'll be a federal agent in there. And you know what? A lot of times

00:14:23.260 there was. The federal agents were really trying to make up all these garbage cases and pressure every

00:14:31.260 right winger. We've seen this, especially in countries like the UK or Australia, but even

00:14:35.840 the United States, that was the case. And so it's not that the charge a federal agent might be in your

00:14:41.660 organization is, is not true. It was true, but also the fear that they might be there made that idea

00:14:50.020 that you could organize. You were constantly scared of it. And of course, this already applies to everything

00:14:55.000 I said about social media, all of your friends and family and coworkers, they are spies. You have to

00:15:01.160 be worried because they have a camera. If they disagree with you politically, they can destroy

00:15:06.200 your life in a minute. So even if they're not official spies of the state, even if they're not

00:15:10.820 official informants, they are functionally informants on you. And so you have to constantly

00:15:17.500 live in fear that this will happen. So this is very much something that is present in our everyday

00:15:23.280 lives. Now, less with, I guess, the federal agents, theoretically under the Trump administration,

00:15:27.640 but still this constant fear that something you say or something you do will go viral on the internet

00:15:33.860 and will destroy you means a lot of people have to be very, very quiet with their actual beliefs and

00:15:38.860 certainly any kind of action they would take. Another art of the tyrant is to sow quarrels among the

00:15:49.740 citizens. Friends should be embroiled with friends and the people with the nobles and the rich with

00:15:55.380 one another. Also, you should have impoverished his subjects. He thus provides against the maintenance

00:16:01.200 of a guard by the citizens and the people having to keep hard at work are prevented from conspiring.

00:16:08.640 The pyramids of Egypt afford an example of this policy. Also, the offerings of the family of

00:16:14.760 Cleopas, or I'm probably saying that wrong, and the buildings of the temples of Olympian Zeus

00:16:19.960 and by Pistratides. Again, I'm sure I'm saying it very wrong. And the great Polycretian

00:16:27.520 monument at Semos. Somewhere the ancient professors, the classic professors are pulling out their hair

00:16:34.500 and screaming. All these works are alike intended to occupy the people and keep them poor. So two things

00:16:40.900 here, right? He says, first, you need to go ahead and have these people quarreling all the time.

00:16:47.160 Set friends against friends and nobles against the people, the rich against one another. Get everyone

00:16:53.560 angry at each other all the time. You know what's really good for this? Democracy. Democracy is really

00:17:00.260 good for this. I'm not angry at the rulers. I'm angry at my neighbor. I'm not angry at the elites

00:17:07.000 with actual power. I'm angry with the guy down my street who owns a Ford dealership because he's got

00:17:12.480 more money than me. This is how you actually set people against each other, right? It's everyone

00:17:19.820 else's fault. It's never the ruler's fault. So make sure that they're always arguing against each

00:17:24.240 other. You could do this a lot of ways, but democracy is certainly one. Also, he suggests that

00:17:30.260 you need these large public works projects that like the people are mandatorily required to involve

00:17:36.420 themselves in. And that will keep them busy the whole time, right? So that you don't have to

00:17:41.540 worry about it. They're too exhausted. They have to constantly work. They have to constantly keep

00:17:45.800 their eye. And these public works are really only glorifying usually the ruling class. Yo, who are

00:17:51.160 the pyramids of Egypt for? Well, they're for the Egyptian rulers. It's their tomb. It's for their glory.

00:17:56.060 So not only are you raising my power as a tyrant, but I'm also ensuring that you don't have time to

00:18:01.620 think about anything else. You spend all day doing what else you need to do. Then you give your labor

00:18:06.680 towards this monumental task. You're too busy at the end of the day to worry about anything. And my

00:18:12.120 prestige continues to grow. So keep them angry, keep them arguing with each other, keep them poor,

00:18:18.360 and make sure that they're constantly working. Any of that sound familiar?

00:18:23.060 Let's see here. Another practice of the tyrant is to multiply taxes, lots of taxes, after the

00:18:31.420 manner of Dionysus of Syracuse, who contrived that within five years, his subjects should bring into

00:18:38.100 the treasury their whole property. The tyrant is also fond of making war in order that his subjects

00:18:45.120 may have something to do and be always in want of a leader. All right. So tyrant needs to raise a lot

00:18:52.480 of taxes. Make sure the people are heavily taxed so they don't have any money. Then he's bringing

00:18:57.760 in lots of money in there. And then he should also constantly be making war because that will keep

00:19:02.840 the people distracted and they'll always feel like they need to have a leader. Someone needs to have

00:19:07.040 power. Someone needs to be having control. We're at war. We don't have time to debate whether or not

00:19:11.900 the tyrant should be in charge. He's busy fighting off our enemies. Again, none of these things are

00:19:18.740 particularly difficult to spot in our current reality.

00:19:22.480 And whereas the power of a king is preserved by his friends, the characteristics of a tyrant is to

00:19:28.740 distrust his friends because he knows that all men want to overthrow him and they above all have the

00:19:37.100 power. So remember, for Aristotle, the king is not a bad thing. A monarch is not a bad thing.

00:19:43.220 It could be the best thing. It actually could be the best form of government. So what's the difference

00:19:46.980 between the king and the tyrant here? Well, he says the king is preserved by his friends.

00:19:51.760 The king is ruling for the good of the people. And so his friends are his closest allies because

00:19:57.560 they want him to succeed. His success is their success and the rest of the people's success.

00:20:03.660 We're all working together. We have the same telos. We have the same inn in mind. But the tyrant,

00:20:10.520 he doesn't like his own friends because they're the most powerful people around him. Of course,

00:20:16.160 he's the tyrant. He has all the power. But because he has all the power, everyone wants to overthrow him.

00:20:21.960 He's constantly in jeopardy. And who are the only people who really probably have the ability to

00:20:26.300 overthrow him? His friends who have a lot of power and wealth because they're attached to him. So at

00:20:31.400 some level, he knows he probably needs them because no one truly rules alone, right? Iron law of oligarchy.

00:20:37.860 It's always going to be some clique of people sharing that power. However, he also despises

00:20:47.720 them because they're the only people close enough to power to actually take it. So he needs them. He

00:20:53.560 keeps them around. But he doesn't rule with their friendship. In many ways, he has to rule against

00:21:00.240 it. He has to be worried constantly that these people will come for his power because everyone hates

00:21:04.960 them because he's not ruling in the interest of the greater civilization.

00:21:11.980 Again, the evil practices of the last and the worst form of democracy are all found in tyrannies.

00:21:17.700 So all the problems we see in the worst problems of democracy also exist when it comes to the rule

00:21:23.560 of a tyrant. Such are the powers given to women in their families in the hope that they will inform 0.93

00:21:28.980 against their husbands and the license which is allowed to slaves in order that they may betray their 0.87

00:21:34.280 masters. For slaves and women do not conspire against tyrants and they are of course friendly to

00:21:40.180 tyrannies and also to democracies since under them they have a good time. For the people too would

00:21:47.740 feign in monarchy and therefore by them as well as by the tyrant, the flatterer is held in honor. 1.00

00:21:56.240 In democracies, he is the demagogue and the tyrant also has those who associate with him

00:22:01.440 in a humble spirit which is the work of flattery. So it says so he says here that you you see a lot

00:22:08.480 of tyrants and democracies both lean on women and slaves. Now to some extent he's pointing out here

00:22:15.680 okay I think one part of that is because women and slaves generally are not treated well by other

00:22:21.860 forms of government. So maybe it just makes sense logically that they're going to side with those

00:22:27.560 types of governments. But he might also and I think probably is given Aristotle's other passages

00:22:32.740 about these two groups. He's also pointing to what he believes to be a predilection by both groups

00:22:40.920 to be welcoming to tyranny. They tend to be groups in his mind that are not looking for in you know

00:22:47.820 their own individual wills or dignity to be asserted. They just want the government to treat them

00:22:54.880 better. And so if a tyrant is going to offer them these abilities to you know go ahead and have

00:23:02.180 more rights or have more more things as long as they turn on their husbands or their masters well 1.00

00:23:09.920 they're going to do it because they see that as an advantage. Now maybe you'll say oh good well they

00:23:15.700 should because nobody should be a slave and you know women you know shouldn't have any you know they 0.99

00:23:22.300 should be able to do whatever their husbands do. They shouldn't have any more loyalty to their 1.00

00:23:25.740 husbands than anyone else. You know maybe that's ultimately where you believe but that you know

00:23:30.460 that that just kind of speaks to his point. Whether you think that you know women slaves will be justified 1.00

00:23:36.360 in those actions or not he's saying well because of that they are going they're not going to resist

00:23:41.520 tyrants. They're going to work with tyrants. They're going to encourage tyrants. And so he also points out

00:23:47.400 that flattery is a huge problem that people like uh like this enjoy you know surrounding themselves

00:23:54.420 with flatterers. Now if you're in a democracy and it's the it's the people it's the demos that's in 0.51

00:24:00.540 charge it's popular sovereignty well then you flatter the crowd. Uh you know that's what a demagogue

00:24:05.240 does gets up and says you know uh we're the americans and we're the best and it's all about you guys and

00:24:11.000 you know we're we're going to give you everything you want because the people are right and the people

00:24:14.540 speak for us that's demagoguery that's flattery of the people or if it's the tyrant you might have

00:24:22.340 so you know just a bunch of sycophantic people saying of course the emperor has clothes on oh

00:24:26.680 he's great everything he does is amazing he's the most handsome smart guy around here and you know he

00:24:31.520 just does whatever is right and we should all trust him that's flattery right and so he says whether

00:24:37.020 it's the tyrant or uh the the democracy flattery in these late stage like failing uh governments 0.89

00:24:45.380 they tend to be key right and so uh that that's something to watch out as well and of course we

00:24:50.980 can point to many people we can even point to donald trump if there's one thing we know about

00:24:55.020 donald trump i don't think he's a tyrant but if there's one aspect he certainly has it's that he

00:24:59.400 seems to enjoy flattery quite a bit flattery will get you uh everywhere with donald trump so that is a

00:25:04.980 a a uh predilection that he has that i think manifests itself pretty obviously is one of the

00:25:10.060 things aristotle warns us about his tyranny uh hence tyrants are always fond of bad men because they

00:25:18.140 love to be flattered but no man who has the spirit of a free man in him will lower himself to flattery

00:25:25.260 good men love others or at any rate do not flatter them all right so this is important

00:25:30.960 because a lot of people when they look at monarchy and remember monarchy and tyranny are different

00:25:38.900 things for aristotle they are different things for aristotle a lot of people will look at uh at uh

00:25:47.100 you know the the depictions of kings in popular media and they will say oh well it's all people

00:25:54.680 they run around terrified of these people and they basically worship them and everyone's flattering

00:25:59.920 them all the time and look some of that most certainly went off okay it's not to pretend

00:26:04.220 that you know no one was a flatterer and no one uh was shameless or obsequious before a king

00:26:10.480 uh that obviously happened but aristotle says there's a difference between a king and a tyrant

00:26:15.660 and one of the things is kind of pointing to and you notice he referenced the persians many times over

00:26:20.880 but you know there's a very different understanding of what a king does between say the english and the

00:26:27.780 chinese right like like the god emperor model is very different than the constitutionally restrained 1.00

00:26:36.000 king right these are very different models and so you can have a king who is not worshiped like a god

00:26:43.060 in fact in many cases kings came out of this idea that they were just the first among many nobles

00:26:48.620 and so there was a certain level of you know the king wasn't equal with a peasant but there's an

00:26:54.180 understanding that the king was not god either there might have been you know the divine right

00:26:58.740 of a king later on developed that's not actually like a a big thing in the you know 1300s even though

00:27:05.280 you know obviously they were receiving um uh you know uh crowns from from the the pope or something like

00:27:11.780 that oftentimes but the idea that the king himself was like somehow deified uh simply did not exist

00:27:18.540 for most of western history in large part because that wasn't allowed under the christian church

00:27:22.920 that's a huge problem with you know when the romans went from having a republic they had to start

00:27:28.220 deifying their emperors right like because you needed the imperial cult and one of the reasons that

00:27:33.800 uh christians and jews funny enough uh were uh considered bad subjects is they would not worship

00:27:40.080 right even though like it was mainly performative like most people didn't really believe that caesar was

00:27:46.360 like a god or at least not early on um but like you went through the motions and you just said yeah

00:27:52.980 our our our our our you know lord and you know the you know the this the you know deified quasi uh

00:28:01.120 religious uh you know uh king emperor uh you know we're gonna worship him but the christians wouldn't

00:28:07.880 and the jews wouldn't and so that was a huge problem because you can't really have the tyranny 0.74

00:28:12.500 if people aren't treating you like you haven't you're you're a deity like you're someone who has

00:28:18.020 that level of power uh so you know remove it so so as he's saying here you could be a man who lives

00:28:23.620 under a king honorably if you're not someone who's going to lie and flatter uh you know and like debase

00:28:30.700 yourself there are scenarios where you could have a monarchy where you are still a man under respect

00:28:36.800 but if you're if you if everyone needs to flatter if everyone needs to fall down and worship well

00:28:42.040 then you probably have a tyranny not just a monarchy moreover the bad are useful for bad purposes

00:28:49.180 nails knocks out nails as the proverb says uh nail knocks out nail as the proverb says is characteristic

00:28:56.040 of a tyrant to dislike everyone who is who has dignity or independence he wants to be alone in his

00:29:02.700 glory but anyone who claims a uh a like dignity or asserts an independence encroaches upon his

00:29:10.720 prerogative and is hated by him as an enemy to his power another mark of a tyrant is that he likes

00:29:17.120 foreigners better than citizens and lives with them uh and invites them to his table for the one uh for 1.00

00:29:24.460 the one are enemies but the others are invited into no rivalry or the others enter into no rivalry

00:29:30.620 with him so a couple important things here right first he doesn't like people who have dignity he

00:29:36.460 doesn't like people who have honor he doesn't like people who have independence for many of the reasons

00:29:39.840 we've already kind of mentioned he's kind of repeating himself here a little bit but people

00:29:43.540 with independence people with dignity people with honor who are are not going to put up with certain

00:29:48.600 actions and you need that to like by being tied to others like you have to be an individual in the

00:29:56.820 sense that you care enough about like how you are treated and what you are going to do you need to have

00:30:02.640 an individual will but you also need to build bonds with others like you so you can push back against

00:30:08.980 the stronger tyrant so you if you're a tyrant you don't want people with dignity you don't want people

00:30:14.540 who see themselves as having their independence encroached and thinking that they have their own

00:30:19.140 prerogative you're the only one with prerogative you're the only one with glory you're the only one with

00:30:24.040 standing and you need to keep it for yourself right that's number one

00:30:27.380 the next one is that uh the next one is that uh he doesn't like his own people he prefers foreigners

00:30:39.880 well why does he surround himself with foreigners well because they're his own people they have a stake 1.00

00:30:46.120 they have interests they have real claims they have support networks all the stuff we talked about

00:30:52.620 with bertrand de juvenal and and uh you know um uh uh democracy in america trying to think of the

00:30:59.980 french author there's so de toqueville there's so many uh there's so many uh french men i have to

00:31:05.020 reference uh de toqueville talking about uh you know uh these uh voluntarily voluntary associations

00:31:12.960 or burke and his little platoons right your your people who live in your country they have these bonds

00:31:18.800 they have all those common meals and and social clubs and literary societies and you know shared

00:31:25.600 religion and all the things that he was worried about as a tyrant previously so you don't want

00:31:30.920 all of those people who have that support network have that material wealth have those connections have

00:31:37.160 that organization share an identity share a faith share a tradition share a belief system you don't want

00:31:43.580 those people around you you want the foreigners around you because they're not a rival like they're

00:31:48.620 cut off from their homelands they're independent right now i think when he's talking about this he

00:31:53.940 meant you know individuals i don't think he meant like they wanted the entire you know i don't think he

00:31:59.060 was thinking move all of somalia to minnesota though you know eventually i guess that does happen

00:32:04.500 that's like a a slow deterioration there i think he was thinking more of bringing independent individuals

00:32:09.500 uh from different countries foreigners around them so they would flatter you because well they they

00:32:14.980 don't have any ties to anything right they don't have their country here they don't have their people 1.00

00:32:19.000 here there's no one else for them to be loyal to there's nothing else for them to be loyalty

00:32:23.080 loyal to in many cases the foreigners are only here because the tyrant has let them in right and so 1.00

00:32:29.660 they are entirely dependent on the tyrant and so the tyrant prefers the foreigner to their own people 0.95

00:32:36.080 because it's easier to rule them it's easier to control them they owe you everything they have no

00:32:43.640 common bonds they have nothing else to fall back on they have no principles they have no prior

00:32:47.840 understanding or history they don't have a social support network that allows them to draw strength

00:32:52.680 from other places they just have you but all those people in your own country well they're native here

00:32:58.840 they have this is their homeland they have the families they have the churches they have the

00:33:02.820 communities they have the clubs they have that infrastructure so for the same reason that the

00:33:07.900 tyrant worries about his friends who are the ones that have money and could possibly overthrow him

00:33:11.900 he also worries about his own people because they're the ones that could actually push back

00:33:15.340 the foreigners are not going to unseat a tyrant that's not how it works foreigners might eventually 0.98

00:33:20.020 conquer the country or collapse the country but they aren't going to overthrow a tyrant that's not

00:33:24.780 that's not how things play out

00:33:26.140 all right

00:33:32.820 such are the notes of the tyrant and the arts by which he preserves his power there is no wickedness

00:33:41.740 too great for him all that we have said may be summed up by under three heads which answer

00:33:48.460 to the three aims of the tyrant they are one the humiliation of his subjects he knows what a mean

00:33:55.320 spirited uh he knows what a mean spirited man will not conspire against any of them to the creation of

00:34:02.180 mistrust among them for tyrant is not overthrown until men begin to have confidence in one another

00:34:07.700 and this is the reason why tyrants are at war with the good they are under the idea that their power

00:34:14.920 is endangered by them not only because they would they would not be ruled uh despotically but also

00:34:22.640 because they are loyal to one another and to other men and do not inform against one another or against

00:34:29.360 other men all right so here's the funny thing uh so he tells you first humiliate your subjects

00:34:37.340 you know so they don't have any dignity they're you know they're mean-spirited uh they're not going

00:34:42.140 to be able to conspire together because they're just awful and demoralized and humiliated also make

00:34:47.680 sure you have mistrust because you don't want people trusting each other and here's the ridicule

00:34:51.020 really critical thing right we all think this is what normally you hear from like especially normie

00:34:56.640 conservatives oh well you need to be based on ideas because it's that rejection of these awful ideas

00:35:02.760 that's what will allow you to push back against tyranny how do you oppose tyranny you become an

00:35:07.780 ideological individual that's why you do it because that's going to make you oppose tyranny right but

00:35:15.420 that's not what aristotle says here he says something very different he says uh you know he says yeah sure

00:35:23.000 they might not want to be ruled by a despot right like they don't be ruled despotically that's a problem

00:35:28.500 they don't want it they'll push back because of that but what will really let them push

00:35:32.700 back is not their desire to oppose the ideology it's not their desire to be free or have liberalism

00:35:40.800 or whatever it's not about having the abstract values of the country or the constitution that

00:35:46.560 stuff is important that might bond you together but that's not actually what opposes tyranny what

00:35:54.080 opposes tyranny collective will loyalty i have gotten a lot of pushback on this i've got a lot of very angry people

00:36:06.040 whenever i say this but i'll say it because it's real

00:36:08.700 the most important political value is loyalty

00:36:15.140 the most important political value is loyalty because without political loyalty you can't get

00:36:25.300 anything done when everything's ideological there's a thousand ways you can argue about ideology

00:36:31.580 this is why highly ideological forms like libertarianism or uh you know uh you know kind of

00:36:39.200 this abstract conservatism are not productive because they spend all of their time arguing with each

00:36:46.520 other well you don't agree in the exact uh nap i do you don't agree the exact understanding of this

00:36:52.640 thing that i do you're not understanding this exact thing the constant ideological argument

00:36:57.980 allows you to then betray people oh well i'm not going to back that guy up i don't agree with him on

00:37:04.980 that one thing okay but like he agrees with you on 90 percent of stuff and if they do that to him

00:37:09.500 they're going to do it to you yeah but i don't want to get in trouble so uh i'm principled i got

00:37:15.060 principles that's why i'm not standing up for alex jones or whoever right because i because i don't agree

00:37:21.040 with him on something we're not ideologically aligned that's why i can that's why i can be a coward

00:37:27.720 that's why i can bail out that's why i can leave that guy to twist that's why i can ultimately support

00:37:32.160 my enemies and you see this all the time libertarians are doing this right now with borders

00:37:36.460 oh what about government power what if what if they're wasting some money okay buddy but like

00:37:44.120 the left is trying to kill you and make sure your elections are rigged so like maybe we maybe we can

00:37:50.120 put that to the side and and figure out the hypothetically best application of of state power

00:37:57.440 after we stop the left from killing us no i want to do it now so that i don't have to risk anything

00:38:04.840 so i don't have to actually work together with people that's what aristotle is saying here you

00:38:11.400 need loyalty one to another that this guy's not going to form on me this guy's not going to act

00:38:16.920 against me this guy has my back nobody wins a battle with a thousand people standing behind them

00:38:22.820 ready to stab them you need to know that when you're fighting the enemy you have people on your

00:38:29.200 side they're not going to defect they're not going to run away they're not going to compromise just 0.98

00:38:33.660 because you might disagree on something so yes people will collectively get together and fight against

00:38:39.580 despotism but they must be able to trust each other they must be loyal to one each other one another

00:38:46.700 and that's why part of the american declaration is swearing your sacred oath

00:38:52.820 you're swearing your sacred oath to other men it's not just the ideology yes we agree on the

00:38:59.440 ideology yes we follow these principles and then we swear our sacred oaths to each other

00:39:05.080 because the loyalty is what mattered that's what actually gets the job done again it's not that

00:39:10.200 you don't have principles but it's that loyalty comes first

00:39:13.960 and by having loyalty to each other you will generally arrive at common principles

00:39:20.760 but not always the other way around and that's once again causality order of operations that i

00:39:27.480 think often completely gets lost and then three he says the tyrant desires that his subjects shall

00:39:36.380 be incapable of action for no one attempts what is impossible and they will and they will not

00:39:43.140 attempt to overthrow a tyranny if they are powerless under these three heads the whole policy of a tyrant

00:39:48.620 may be summed up and to one of them uh one or other of all of them all the all of his ideas

00:39:56.140 may be referred one so distrust among his subjects to take away their power three he humbles them

00:40:04.000 so here he says look you need to make it seem that overthrowing the tyrant is just impossible

00:40:10.420 because no one's going to attempt the pot impossible no one wants to charge in the sheen gun nest

00:40:15.300 if nothing's going to happen okay you might charge a machine gun nest if it's going to save 30 of your

00:40:22.140 buddies and you're going to win this battle and you're going to get awarded this medal and there's

00:40:28.240 going to be your name in a history book for decades then you might charge machine gun nest but no one is

00:40:35.620 charging machine gun nest for cause they think is impossible for a cause they think is unwinnable

00:40:41.660 and that's what he's saying so this is why it's important that we have a realistic view okay there's

00:40:47.380 a balance here on one side there's we need to have a realistic view of what can be done

00:40:54.000 what are the true real political applications of what we see around us like we need to understand

00:41:02.480 that we can't lie to ourselves and say oh well if i just follow this thing or do exactly what the

00:41:07.200 constitution says here i'll be just fine and i don't have to think about it at all

00:41:11.660 like you don't want that that's naive but at the same time you don't want the black pillars 1.00

00:41:16.340 who are just like well nothing's ever going to happen and trump's never going to do anything 0.93

00:41:20.740 and there's just nothing we can ever do and you just give up and sit on your computer and complain

00:41:26.920 because there's just never any hope right like we need to have a middle ground no i don't trust

00:41:33.260 trump or any other republicans should just do something because they got elected

00:41:36.880 no i don't think the majority of the government actually uh behaves the way it says in the

00:41:42.260 constitution when you win an election i'm not going to be naive about those things i'm going to think

00:41:46.160 about power i'm going to think about how to win power i'm going to think about how to secure this and

00:41:50.080 push forward but at the same time i'm not going to sit around and say nothing can ever be done

00:41:54.360 no victories can be had we're always going to fail you should never trust anyone don't get out there

00:42:00.380 and organize it's probably all federal agents don't get out there and build your skill set it's all

00:42:05.440 useless anyway don't bother trying to date a woman don't bother trying to get married don't bother 1.00

00:42:09.720 trying to have kids don't try to seek a relationship with god don't do any of that stuff don't try to 0.99

00:42:14.400 build wealth it's all just going to get inflated away anyway that stuff is just that black pill you 0.91

00:42:21.500 streak is just nothing but useless that's going to keep you that's what a tyrant will want you to

00:42:26.380 believe so that you don't actually try to figure things out he says this is uh this is then one of

00:42:34.240 the two methods by which tyrannies are preserved and there is another which proceeds upon an almost

00:42:40.920 opposite principle of action the nature of this latter method may be gathered uh from a comparison

00:42:46.420 of the causes which destroy kingdoms whereas one mode of destroying uh kingly power is to make the 1.00

00:42:53.300 office of king more tyrannical so the salvation of a tyrant is to make it more like the rule of the

00:42:59.200 king but one thing the tyrant must be careful he must keep power enough to rule over his subjects

00:43:05.180 whether they like him or not for if he once gives this up uh he gives up his tyranny but though power

00:43:12.580 must be retained as the foundation and all in all else the tyrant should act and appear as a

00:43:18.900 to act in the character of a king in the first place he should pretend to care about public revenues

00:43:25.200 and not waste money in making uh presents of a sort at which the common pledge get excited when they see

00:43:31.960 the uh hard won earnings snatched from them and lavished on courtesans and strangers and artists he

00:43:38.580 should give an account of what he receives and of what he spends a practice which has been adopted by

00:43:43.400 some tyrants for he will then seem to be a steward of the public rather than a tyrant nor need he fear

00:43:50.480 that while he is the lord of the city he will ever be in want of money such a policy is at all events

00:43:56.060 much more advantageous for the tyrant when he goes from home than to leave behind him a horde for then the

00:44:02.620 garrison who remain in the city will be less likely to attack his power and a tyrant when he is absent

00:44:09.140 from home has more reasons to fear the guardians of his treasures and the citizens for the one

00:44:15.120 accompany accompany him but the others remain behind so he should start acting as if he's a king

00:44:20.460 all right so you can do the the classic hard power all the things we just ran down with a tyrant you know

00:44:26.600 humiliate the people keep them poor keep them fighting keep them separated keep them busy or you can

00:44:32.120 start acting more like a king but you need to make sure to keep all that power you can start looking

00:44:37.460 more responsible you can start looking like you care about the people you know keep keep a keep a

00:44:43.280 log of the money you're taking in and how you're spending it so you can show them you know but that's

00:44:48.800 going to be an advantage for you because when then when you're gone abroad you don't have to worry about

00:44:54.200 people basically coming around and stealing your stuff stealing your power they're not going to be as

00:44:58.440 inclined to stab you in the back if you're a tyrant and you leave to like go fight a war somewhere or

00:45:03.640 deal with something then everyone who hates you is going to try to rush in and take all your power 0.97

00:45:08.220 and destabilize everything so you want to have that appearance that no why would you want to do that

00:45:12.620 i'm ruling in your interests i'm not really a tyrant in the second place he should be seen to collect

00:45:18.680 taxes and require public service only for state purposes and that he may form a fund in case of general

00:45:24.820 a case of war and generally ought to make himself the guardian and treasure of them as if they belong

00:45:31.940 not to him but to the public he should appear not harsh but dignified and when men meet him they should

00:45:37.900 look upon him with reverence and not fear it is hard for him to respect to be respected if he inspires no

00:45:44.240 respect and therefore whatever virtues he may neglect at least he should maintain the character of a great

00:45:49.460 soldier and produce the impression that he is one neither he nor any of his uh associates should

00:45:55.440 ever be guilty of the least offense against modesty towards the young of either sex who are his subjects 0.60

00:46:01.180 and the women of his family should be a should observe a self-control towards other uh other women 0.98

00:46:08.080 the insolence of women uh has ruined many tyrannies in the indulgence of pleasure pleasure he should be the 1.00

00:46:15.100 opposite of modern tyrants who not only begin at dawn and pass the whole day in sensuality but want

00:46:21.080 other men to see them and they and may admire their half uh their happy and blessed lot and these things

00:46:27.220 a tyrant should should if possible be moderate or at any rate should not parade his vices in the world

00:46:33.900 for a drunken and drowsy tyrant is soon despised and attacked uh not so he is uh not so if he is

00:46:41.640 temperate temperate and wide awake his conduct should be the uh very reverse of nearly everything

00:46:49.140 which has been said before about tyrants he ought to adorn and improve his city as though he were not

00:46:55.460 a tyrant but the guardian of the state also he should appear uh to be particularly earnest in the service

00:47:02.120 of the gods for if the men think a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the gods they are

00:47:07.340 less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands and they are less disposed to conspire against him

00:47:13.720 because they believe him to have the uh very gods fighting on his side if any of this sounds familiar

00:47:19.440 this is blow by blow pretty much what machiavelli eventually says about princess okay yeah you might

00:47:27.920 not want to fault you might not personally have these things you might not be a good christian you

00:47:32.500 might not be generous you you know you you might have these desires but even if you do you you need

00:47:38.940 to act as if you don't you need to act as if you're religious you need to watch yourself around other 0.55

00:47:43.880 men's wives that's a big thing machiavelli talks about taking his their property you need to look above 1.00

00:47:49.500 the board you need to look as if you care about the people's well-being even if you don't so all that

00:47:55.240 cynical advice that machiavelli is so you know uh celebrated forgiving well he didn't exactly get it out of

00:48:02.360 nowhere so you'll see him he continues to talk uh thoroughly about all the ways in which uh tyrant

00:48:12.860 can like adopt these kingly ways to basically uh avoid looking like a tyrant at the end of the day

00:48:20.240 right and he'll go on that for a while uh and of course if you have not read the politics you should

00:48:24.660 we're not going to go through the whole thing today just due to time but i generally wanted to give you

00:48:28.720 that snapshot of what a tyrant looks like to aristotle because so much of this just ports

00:48:36.740 one-to-one to us today right like you mean it's not sitting in front of the city gates it's uh your

00:48:41.320 you know the the spyware on your on your cell phone and you know kind of the tyranny of the panopticon

00:48:46.220 of social media instead of the city gates but you know outside of those technological advancements

00:48:51.520 all the ideas about what put the tyrant in power what keeps him in town and power they're all here

00:48:58.040 right they're all here uh so i just thought it was interesting to go back and take a look at this

00:49:02.100 because uh you can really tell that there's nothing new under the sun and this is why uh ancient

00:49:08.040 philosophy is just as relevant to us today as it was back then because these cute these are huge

00:49:14.640 observations about human nature and politics might change quite a bit in certain areas because of

00:49:21.100 technology or other advancements but human nature it's the same meaning that we can continue to

00:49:27.040 learn from these examples all right guys let's take a look at the questions of the people we have

00:49:33.780 here real quick cherry coke nixon says has been interesting to watch boomers face the consequences

00:49:38.980 of their uh for crazy violent speech they're so used to the offline world where words vanish i think

00:49:47.600 you might need the on i think you might mean the online world because that's where the words would

00:49:52.960 vanish right or offline world where words vanish yeah i'm a little confused uh with what i think you

00:50:00.900 mean the online world there but uh yeah ultimately it has been interesting to watch a lot of people

00:50:05.900 thought that they were involved kind of in this uh you know the return of the 1960s oh we're gonna get

00:50:11.600 one more hippie protest in at the end of the day uh turns out no actually um you know you're not just

00:50:17.920 having this like uh green card to run through and and do whatever you want uh there is going to be

00:50:23.980 some consequence hopefully that's kind of what we've been pushing for uh we've already seen some

00:50:28.560 you know violence is real uh you might actually face a criminal charge you might actually get in

00:50:33.760 trouble you might lose a job uh these are things that just didn't happen to leftists before and now

00:50:38.500 those are real consequences so yeah it has been interesting to see uh cherry coke nixon also

00:50:44.540 says millennial slash gen z grew up in a world of self-censorship yes this is absolutely true and 1.00

00:50:50.300 again essential for tyranny to reign nixon says uh feudal lords uh red bullet bureau clicks and blm

00:50:58.480 equals the same uh well not exactly i mean uh you know the the point is here uh that feudal lords

00:51:05.180 uh might be somewhat different uh but again if they're tyrannical then yes they would be right

00:51:11.160 like the point is tyranny it's not the system it's not so much the the structure of the system do i

00:51:17.280 have a monarchy then it's a then it's a tyranny if i have a democracy i'm free no democracy and tyranny

00:51:23.280 are both bad versions of government they're both disastrous in fact they share many of the same

00:51:28.220 disastrous qualities which is aristotle's point there nixon also says intellectual vegetables versus

00:51:34.420 current events candy i was just glad that i finally got to do something besides go over

00:51:40.540 uh current events yes i i've been wanting to get back to the theory we just had so much going on

00:51:45.440 with minnesota it was so much important stuff to talk about that uh we have been over there but yeah

00:51:50.600 we're hopefully these are tasty vegetables hopefully these are well-seasoned vegetables

00:51:54.220 uh but i am glad that we're doing something a little more substantial today

00:51:57.760 j6 2.0 said reading the 16th century not nikio machiavelli especially uh discourses on livy

00:52:05.580 chapter 18 how a republic should handle corruption it's not pretty no it's not no it's not uh but it

00:52:12.240 is very important and if you haven't read discourses livy if you've only read the prince

00:52:16.140 i do encourage you it's definitely a more challenging book it's longer you've got to have a

00:52:20.740 little more familiarity with the with the references of roman history but it is ultimately very rewarding

00:52:26.740 nixon says politics shows that human nature doesn't change yes absolutely 100 the whole

00:52:32.180 reason we're doing this uh mart gates says i love the philosophy episodes well thank you very much

00:52:40.000 man appreciate it like i said i'm glad to finally be back to them uh had had enough of current events

00:52:45.600 glad to be able to do something i think it's a little more evergreen a little more useful in the

00:52:49.760 long run he also says crazy how bad some of the right are at being sapped into viewing mass

00:52:55.000 deportations as an evil thing it's like george floyd all over again yeah there really is just

00:52:59.960 there there's this impulse as soon as i see something bad on tv i saw i saw a bad video on

00:53:05.200 the internet we've got to run away now we've got to end everything you know throw the country away

00:53:09.720 you know i saw an immigrant cry that's the the meme uh but it really is true and sadly it's true of a 0.60

00:53:15.340 large amount of conservatives uh even though it's you know that's supposed to be the side that at

00:53:20.160 least understands the severity of the situation dixon says mint boomers are used to pre-2000 free

00:53:26.380 speech okay okay i see what you're saying there gotcha so a a pre-2000s understanding of how the

00:53:32.160 country was supposed to run a blessed 90s uh liberal understanding uh if you were all right well thank

00:53:39.160 you very much guys i appreciate you all watching if it's your first time watching on youtube you need

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The Auron MacIntyre Show - January 28, 2026

Aristotle Explains How Tyrants Keep Power ｜ 1⧸28⧸26

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