Photo by Meelimello on Pixabay

Politics isn’t on everyone’s agenda. Young people, for instance, have little interest in positions of governance and organized control over a community. But according to a guy who lived hundreds of years before Christ, everyone should consider it a very important matter.

He cleverly narrowed it down to a single sentence.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Plato, 424/423 – 348/347 BCE

(Philosopher, mathematician – Athens, Greece)

You don’t get much clearer than that. Fail to participate in the making of the rulebook and you’ll end up working in other people’s interests. Plato gained this knowledge not just from personal observations, but also from his parents and the most distinguished teachers who lived in that period. Although there aren’t many accounts about his early life and upbringing, the philosopher is known to have come from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. He was described as bright and modest, and preoccupied with his studies.

Plato founded the Academy in Athens, the first Western institution of higher learning, becoming an essential figure in the development of philosophy and other subjects. He laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science along with his teacher Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle.