"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms"
About this Quote
Power gives itself away in what it’s afraid of. Aristotle’s line cuts through the polite fiction that disarmament is mainly about safety or civic refinement; he frames it as a diagnostic of regime type. The oligarch and the tyrant may differ in who gets to rule - a narrow class versus a single strongman - but they share the same core suspicion: the many are not partners in governance, they’re a potential uprising waiting for an opening. Taking away arms isn’t just a policy choice, it’s a confession of illegitimacy.
The subtext is Greek and intensely practical. Aristotle is writing in a world where the polis depends on citizen-soldiers, where bearing arms isn’t a hobby but a marker of membership. To be armed is to be counted. Disarming “the people” therefore doesn’t merely reduce violence; it redraws the boundaries of citizenship, turning participants into subjects. The regime is saying: your role is labor, taxes, and obedience, not deliberation or defense.
It also exposes a broader Aristotelian idea about stability. In his political thought, durable governments cultivate trust through shared power and shared risk. Oligarchy and tyranny invert that logic: they secure themselves through asymmetry, keeping coercive force concentrated in loyal hands (guards, mercenaries, elites) while the majority is rendered administratively manageable.
The wit is in the pairing. Aristotle collapses the supposed opposition between rule-by-the-best and rule-by-one into a single psychological posture: fear of the demos. The sentence doubles as warning and litmus test - look at who is armed, and you’ll see who the state believes actually belongs.
The subtext is Greek and intensely practical. Aristotle is writing in a world where the polis depends on citizen-soldiers, where bearing arms isn’t a hobby but a marker of membership. To be armed is to be counted. Disarming “the people” therefore doesn’t merely reduce violence; it redraws the boundaries of citizenship, turning participants into subjects. The regime is saying: your role is labor, taxes, and obedience, not deliberation or defense.
It also exposes a broader Aristotelian idea about stability. In his political thought, durable governments cultivate trust through shared power and shared risk. Oligarchy and tyranny invert that logic: they secure themselves through asymmetry, keeping coercive force concentrated in loyal hands (guards, mercenaries, elites) while the majority is rendered administratively manageable.
The wit is in the pairing. Aristotle collapses the supposed opposition between rule-by-the-best and rule-by-one into a single psychological posture: fear of the demos. The sentence doubles as warning and litmus test - look at who is armed, and you’ll see who the state believes actually belongs.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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