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Socrates: Say then, my friend, In what manner does tyranny arise that it has a democratic origin is evident.
Glaucon: Clearly.
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S: And democracy has her own good, of which the insatiable desire brings her to dissolution?
G: What good?
S: Freedom, I replied; which, as they tell you in a democracy, is the glory of the State–and that therefore in a democracy alone will the freeman of nature deign to dwell.
G: Yes; the saying is in every body’s mouth.
S: I was going to observe, that the insatiable desire of this and the neglect of other things introduces the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny.
G: How so?
S: When a democracy which is thirsting for freedom has evil cup bearers presiding over the feast, and has drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then, unless her rulers are very amenable and give a plentiful draught, she calls them to account and punishes them, and says that they are cursed oligarchs.
G: Yes, he replied, a very common occurrence.
S: And above all, I said, and as the result of all, see how sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority, and at length, as you know, they cease to care even for the laws, written or unwritten; they will have no one over them.
G: Yes, he said, I know it too well.
S: Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.
G: Glorious indeed, he said. But what is the next step?
S: The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disease magnified and intensified by liberty overmasters democracy–the truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction; and this is the case not only in the seasons and in vegetable and animal life, but above all in forms of government.
G: True.
S: The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.
G: Yes, the natural order.
S: And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty?
G: As we might expect.