Though Plato doesn't mention rhetoricians and politicians in this passage from Book X of The Laws, I couldn't help reading it as a backhanded condemnation of those two most evil of societies in Plato's writings. In this passage, flattery, along with prayers and incantations, are the means whereby rhetoricians and politicians herd those who, like "brute animals," are unable to think for themselves, and so follow wherever they are led.
"Upon
this earth we know that there dwell souls possessing an unjust
spirit, who may be compared to brute animals, which fawn upon their
keepers, whether dogs or shepherds, or the best and most perfect masters;
for they in like manner, as the voices of the wicked declare, prevail
by flattery and prayers and incantations, and are allowed to make their
gains with impunity. And this sin, which is termed dishonesty, is an
evil of the same kind as what is termed disease in living bodies or pestilence in years or seasons of the year, and in cities and
governments has another name, which is injustice.
In The Apology, Socrates claims that he is the only true politician, because he is the only one who tells the people what they should hear, even when they don't want to hear it.
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