Whatever else one can say about Jeremy Corbyn, one thing is clear: he is a leader who does not believe in leadership. But he is (he believes) a democrat, and thinks democracy means acceding to the views of those who voted him into the leadership. He should try the 5th-century bc Greek historian Thucydides to see what it really entails.
Thucydides’ hero was his contemporary Pericles, a man who so controlled the Assembly — Athens’ sovereign decision-making body (all Athenian citizens over 18) — that Thucydides described Athens at the time as ‘in theory a democracy, but in fact rule by the foremost individual’. This is an exaggeration. Pericles in Assembly had no more power to enforce his will than any other citizen; he was but a single voice among many others. So what was his secret?
Thucydides puts into Pericles’ mouth a speech (in a military context) in which he argues that, since Athens can, as a community, support individuals’ misfortunes, but individuals cannot support hers, it is essential that citizens forget their personal problems and rally rather to the cause of Athens as a whole.
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