Plato's advise to President-Elect Obama - Essay Example

# To the Honorable President-Elect Barack Obama: Some Humble Advice From the Philosopher Plato Dear Sir, Mr. Obama, you find yourself in quite a predicament, taking over the United States Presidency at a time when your country is wracked with war, failing corporations and financial markets, foreclosures, and bickering among your fellow politicians as to what course of action to take next. I wanted to take it upon myself to write you a short letter of advice, based on my 2,500 years of experience with being a philosopher.

Only true philosophers can be kings. Anyone less than a true philosopher will try to rule for the wrong reasons and make a mess of things. A just society is possible, if its kings are philosophers, or become philosophers.A difficult, if not impossible, task awaits you to start clean when you take office. So much has gone wrong, and the consequences of previous rulers’ actions will follow you throughout your time in office. But take my advice, the genuine ruler “will take society and human character as his canvas, and begin by scraping it clean. . . . [H]e will not consent to take in hand either an individual or a state or to draft laws, until he is given a clean surface to work on or has cleansed it himself” (p. 209). You can’t hope to fix anything if failed policies and actions can’t be scraped away to make room for better governing.

Weigh carefully in your mind, when you’re asked to make decisions, the worth of a specific action, over and above what it means to those who petition you. Don’t be afraid to end policies that weren’t set up with the people’s best interest in mind in the first place. Keep the greater good of the whole population in mind, rather than the complaining voices of lobbyists and congressmen. Philosophically weigh the consequences of the war and the nation’s economic policies, and make decisions from a clean slate if those previous policies aren’t working.

The man who held office before you seemed to me drunk with power. I believe “access to power must be confined to men who are not in love with it” (p. 235). If you fall in love with being leader of what’s been called the greatest nation on earth, you’ll forget why you were elected to this office in the first place: to serve the people. Make your life good and wise first, and then you’ll be happy and be able to rule the nation philosophically and not through power. “All goes wrong when, starved for lack of anything good in their own lives, men turn to public affairs hoping to snatch from thence the happiness they hunger for” (p. 235). Men and women who rule the nation must be philosophers first, satisfied with their positions in life, not hungering for power and glory.

When rulers make decisions based on thinking things through, they make good decisions. When rulers make decisions based on how much power they can snatch all to themselves, they make bad decisions for the people they’re ruling.How do you become a philosopher king? Your inborn disposition seems to be good, and the way you’ve conducted your life so far has been acceptable. You’ve got a good start, according to my definition of a good ruler. To be a philosopher king, you must also pursue enduring knowledge, love truth, be temperate, not love money, and be “fair-minded, gentle, and sociable” (p. 192). All these qualities will serve you well for domestic and foreign affairs.

Above all, the pursuit of wisdom will lead a ruler down the right path. It has always been my hope that “… genuine philosophers—one or more of them—shall come into power in a state; men who will despise all existing honours as mean and worthless, caring only for the right and the honours to be gained from that, and above all for justice as the one indispensable thing in whose service and maintenance they will reorganize their own state” (p. 262). Care only for what is right, what is truly right, and you’ll be a good leader for this nation. Mr. Obama, thank you for reading my words and considering them as a true philosopher.

If you would like to have further discussions with me, please send me an email or contact my secretary for an appointment. Best of luck to you in your new endeavor, and if you follow my advice, the United States will be better for it.Best regards,PlatoReferencePlato. The Republic of Plato. Francis MacDonald Cornford, translator. London: Oxford, 1973.