Natural Slaves

Natural Slaves:

Rush Limbaugh, radio show:

[T]here is no equality. You cannot guarantee that any two people will end up the same. And you can't legislate it, and you can't make it happen. You can try, under the guise of fairness and so forth, but some people are self-starters, and some people are born lazy. Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves.

Shocking. Except....

Aristotle, Politics, Book 1 Chapter V:

We may then, as we affirm, perceive in an animal the first principles of herile and political government; for the soul governs the body as the master governs his slave; the mind governs the appetite with a political or a kingly power, which shows that it is both natural and advantageous that the body should be governed by the soul, and the pathetic part by the mind, and that part which is possessed of reason; but to have no ruling power, or an improper one, is hurtful to all; and this holds true not only of man, but of other animals also, for tame animals are naturally better than wild ones, and it is advantageous that both should be under subjection to man; for this is productive of their common safety: so is it naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind. Those men therefore who are as much inferior to others as the body is to the soul, are to be thus disposed of, as the proper use of them is their bodies, in which their excellence consists; and if what I have said be true, they are slaves by nature, and it is advantageous to them to be always under government. He then is by nature formed a slave who is qualified to become the chattel of another person, and on that account is so, and who has just reason enough to know that there is such a faculty [as reason], without being indued with the use of it[.]

In other words, some people don't use their reason to rule over their desires; and as a consequence, their bodies and not their minds rule them. As it is disasterous for a man to be ruled by his desires (consider for example the drug addict), it may be better -- actually, physically better -- for them to be under the governance of someone else. This argument has been controversial in the modern, pro-democracy age that we live in; but it is a familiar argument that Rush Limbaugh is making here, one with a history that I had thought was well known.

I assume you read Aristotle in law school, Mr. Amato? Perhaps not, because neither Dr. Althouse nor her readers mention him either.

I wonder what they do teach at these schools?