Pythagoras (580–500 BC) as a teacher is still remembered for a number of symbolic utterances. One was “Abstain from beans,” which meant “Avoid democratic voting.” He was not the only ancient philosopher who was distrustful of the democratic form of government because it allowed leaders to be elected by the uneducated lower class.
If we had this problem today, 2,500 years later, would we regard it as a problem with democracy or education?
