Note 189 — Chapter XVI · The Class-State and the Modern Proletariat.

Plato already recognized the results of such conditions. He wrote: “A state in which classes exist is not one single state but two. The poor form one, and the rich form the other. Both dwell together, but always way-lay one another. Finally the ruling class becomes unable to wage a war, for then it depends upon the masses whom, when armed, it fears more than the enemy.”—Plato, The State. Aristotle says: “Widespread poverty is an evil, for it can hardly be prevented that such persons become promoters of disorder.”