ble or virtuous. Some of the worstleaders in the world have been the most educated. Education does notnecessarily breed morality. Aristotle explains that to be a truly virtuousperson one must act in a virtuous way, not just know what is the way tobe virtuous (Good Life, 35). Would not a corrupted leader in Socrates city be much morecatastrophic to a city than a corrupted leader in a democracy? In ademocracy, one corrupted leader can be forced to leave office and bereplaced, but when there is only one leader, who is either ordained bygod or brought in by military force, or when there is a group of leaderswho are not responsible to the people, the people have no opportunityto decide on a more noble or just person as their leader, and the peoplehave no protection against corruption in their government. Socrates last attack is against equality. He says democracydispenses a certain equality to equals and unequals alike (Plato,558c). He seems to be saying that all men are not created equal andthat certain people are better equipped to have rights in a city. In fact,Socrates says that the people must be told that they have certainmetals in their souls which make them of different classes (Plato,412b-415d). He calls this the Noble Lie, and while it is a lie, I am notsure how noble it is. Equality certainly has been a huge issue in our Americangovernment. As for personal rights, President John F. Kennedy said, All of us do not have equal talent, but all of should have an equalopportunity to develop our talents (Kennedy) When it comes to equalityin government, Alexander Hamilton Declared in a speech to theConstitutional convention that every individual of the community atlarge has an equal right to protection of the government (Hamilton).When it come to equality in choosing government, things tend to gettricky. If everyone is not going to be given a say in the government, thenwho decides who gets a say and who does not? Wh...
