Just so, he replied.
Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are the leaders and the more timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones, some stingless, and others having stings.
A very just comparison.
Illustration. These two classes are the plagues of every city in which they are generated, being what phlegm and bile are to the body. [C]And the good physician and lawgiver of the State 273 ought, like the wise bee-master, to keep them at a distance and prevent, if possible, their ever coming in; and if they have anyhow found a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out as speedily as possible.
Yes, by all means, he said.
Altogether three classes in a democracy. Then, in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us imagine democracy to be divided, as indeed it is, into [D]three classes; for in the first place freedom creates rather more drones in the democratic than there were in the oligarchical State.
That is true.
And in the democracy they are certainly more intensified.
How so?
(1) The drones or spend-thrifts who are more numerous and active than in the oligarchy. Because in the oligarchical State they are disqualified and driven from office, and therefore they cannot train or gather strength; whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power, and while the keener sort speak and act, the rest keep buzzing about the bema and do [E]not suffer a word to be said on the other side; hence in democracies almost everything is managed by the drones.