GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THEORY OF COMMUNISM 709
(d) 'What then, if it,' Plato would ask, 'that the mass*
value and call good/ and would answer 'wealth and worldly
happiness/ 'These ends,' he would continue, 'were
those of the third class in my State, a class which, it will
be remembered, was governed not by its reason, but by
its appetites, and which used its reason only in order that
it might the more effectively gratify its appetites. Thus the
rulers in a communist State will not guide their subjects
by reason in pursuit of the true and the good; they will use
reason as an instrument for the satisfaction of their desires
through the increase of worldly goods. Apart from the fact
that these are goods proper to slaves, there is t&e considera-
tion that there will never be enough of them to satisfy
everybody or so, at least, both rulers and masses, the prey
of appetites which grow with what they feed on, will
think and the State will be constantly rent by strife, as
different sections and individuals seek to obtain the largest
share for themselves. 9
Summary. The foregoing considerations may be briefly
summed up in the form of two objections which Plato*
would have levelled against the contemporary communist
State. First, a State which is still a dass State, although
the class which is in control includes the vast majority of
citizens, will be a State divided within itself against
itself. Secondly, the fact that the controlling majority
consist of the workers, a fact which Communism cites to
its own credit Communist Russia, it is pointed out, is
the first State in which the government, though admittedly
a class government, is a government of the majority, the
workers, and not of the minority, the exploitersmakes
the situation worse. 'For the workers,' Plato would say,
'are my third class. Members of this class are the same in
all ages and in all countries; their souls are governed by
their appetites and not by their reasons; they do not care
for the things of the mind, and they are fundamentally
incorrigible. It is such men that Communism honours. It
gives them the control of the State and, accordingly,
ensures that the State will be dominated by their ideals.