On Justice by J. L. Wells
Plato discusses in his longest dialogue, that a true leader or lawgiver must be a moral exemplar. The Greek argued that if the person or people with the most power in a state are not morally upstanding then those below them would imitate the immoral behavior of those above them. Thus the state would fall into injustice and collapse. Ghandi, like Martin Luther King Jr. and others throughout history, was a moral exemplar to his people.
If a law in particular, are found to include some citizens but not others it cannot rationally be held to be just. It gives more to some then to others and is therefore a special interest which doesn’t have the good of all the state included within it.
What do these views, ancient and modern, mean to those of us alive today. It must mean that we as a people must demand more ethical and moderate behavior not only of our leaders but of ourselves. Because we are attempting an individualistic society we must not let our freedom be unchecked, we must control ourselves in order to live in balance with the six billion other people we share our world with. It is obvious to many Americans that our leaders, on both sides of the aisle, are not citizens but party-men. Our republic has turned into an oligarchy of the corporate elite and the only way we can take it back is for us as a people to become upright enough to demand in a true manner, i.e. not hypocritical, that our leaders be as virtuous as we are and to do what is best for the entirety of our state. This action encapsulates the ideals that Plato expresses in his dialogue.
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