Plutarch’s lessons for Labour

The lives of those daily in the public eye are bound to attract attention, especially when they are politicians telling us what to do. The Greek essayist Plutarch (d. c. ad 120) wrote at length on this topic. How does Labour match up to his ancient ideals?

A politician’s aim, Plutarch said, was to win the trust of the people so that they would accept his authority ‘without being frightened off like a suspicious and unpredictable animal.’ To do this, the politician had to put his private affairs in order since the moral standard of the rulers determined the moral value of their regime.

So he had to ensure his life was scandal free, because the public was interested in every aspect of it: ‘dinner parties, love affairs, marriage, amusements and interests’. Plutarch cites the lengths to which the public would go to find fault (Scipio was reproved for sleeping too much). When a builder asked the Roman politician Drusus if he would like his house less open to public sight, he replied: ‘Open up the whole place: everyone must see how I live.’ Politicians had to be purer than pure. Yes, Sir Keir?

Likewise, it was the task of the statesman not just to exercise power but to serve the community. That meant the politician stood up especially for weaker people: ‘The multitude can have no greater honour shown them by their superiors than not to be despised.’ Did all your MPs live up to that after the riots, Sir Keir?

But the Labour party has scored one great success. Plutarch saw advantage in being seen to disagree. It carried conviction among the voters, he argued, when in large policy matters party members should at first disagree and then change their minds. It looked as if they were acting from principle. In small matters, however, they should be genuinely allowed to disagree, because then their agreement in important matters did not look pre-concerted.