I credit it to motivation and determination, but Plato's ideas as presented in the Republic have been used in the creation of deliberately bad governance. Government good at doing evil. Through specialization, focus and efficiencies. No philosopher kings. Philosophers are impractical. Instead we have self-serving assholes adept at rationalizing any kind of evil and at avoiding accountability.
Warriors are deployed by them to keeps arms merchants and manufacturers swimming in cash. Everybody serves the ends of the overlords and carry on only at their pleasure, with no rights independently of them. Religion is co-opted to stifle dissent and further control the messaging, which is all lies and bullshit. Further down in the food chain lives are precarious. They are powerless.
When has any technology not been used for bad ends? People are reasonably scared about how it might play out with AI. Plato's scheme for governance is a technology. What if good government isn't efficient? Is the American scheme deliberately inefficient and cumbersome in it's everyday operations to protect us and the system from abuse? Maybe so. But the power seekers have taken over.
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