
Łukasz Zaremba
Assistant professor, Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw
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"Praktyka Teoretyczna" / "Theoretical Practice" 2020/2
"Praktyka Teoretyczna" / "Theoretical Practice" 2020/2
thought in the West. In its many variations (like “mob”, “mass”, “mul
-
titude” or “crowd”) it has denominated the lowest social stratum since
antiquity, and has been characterized as corrupted, unstable, passionate,
spiteful, fickle, etc. In the classic representation of Polybius, the rule of
the mob is compared to an unruly ship, on which some of the shipma
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tes “want to continue the voyage, while others urge the helmsman to
drop anchor; some of them let out the sheets, while others interfere and
order the sails furled” (Polybius 2010, 403). Mob rule is a degenerate
form of democracy, into which, according to the theory of the cyclical
succession of regimes, the latter inevitably degenerates, being unable to
tame the crowd. Similar metaphors had already been formulated by
Plato, who also compared politics to the art of managing a ship. Here,
again, the rowdy crew tries to dupe the captain so they can freely wine,
dine and sail with the tide (incidentally, it is an odd picture of a ship
that Plato paints, where the captain is clumsy and practically blind, and
the sailors know nothing about the naval art). Plato’s comparison of the
rule of the people to a big and dangerous animal is equally familiar.
Aristotle, Cicero and many others will come to depict it in similar ways.
Modern political philosophy largely maintains this imaging.
https://www.pismowidok.org/pl/archiwum/2014/8-powrot-krajobrazu