Aristotle and Adi Da on the Crisis and Purpose of Politics
by Beezone
Today, when we speak of politics, we do so like children who have forgotten how to read. Literalism has replaced depth. And in this flattening, we lose the soul of both religion and governance.
We used to know how to read. Today we live in an age of singular meaning—where all four layers of interpretation have been flattened into one: the literal. We treat news stories and political battles as if they are final, as if they are all there is. This is not wisdom. It is simplification masquerading as clarity. And that is dangerous.
In the long arc of human reflection on politics, two voices—separated by over two millennia—offer a profound convergence. Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, and Adi Da Samraj, a contemporary spiritual teacher, both speak to the dangers of political disorder and the necessity of virtue in public life. While their vocabularies differ—one grounded in classical philosophy, the other in a radical spiritual vision—their insights resonate strikingly on the subject of governance, civic responsibility, and the soul of society.
For Aristotle, politics is an extension of ethics. In his seminal work, Politics, he defines the state as a community aimed at the highest good. The health of a political system, he insists, depends on the virtue of its citizens. When citizens are ruled by reason and seek the common good, the state flourishes. But when democracy devolves into mob rule (ochlocracy)—a condition where decisions are driven by unchecked passions and factional interests—civic life collapses. In such a system, the law is overridden by will, and stability is sacrificed to populist chaos. Aristotle recommends a balanced constitution—a polity—rooted in the middle class, where moderation and civic participation act as stabilizing forces.
Adi Da Samraj, writing from a radically different tradition, echoes these concerns in his critique of modern culture. In Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced by the White House!, he warns against the rise of a technocratic and politicized society that replaces authentic spiritual engagement with institutional power and identity politics. He sees modern politics not as the pursuit of the highest good, but as an extension of the egoic self, a collective manifestation of narcissism. For Adi Da, the crisis of politics is inseparable from the crisis of consciousness. When individuals are not spiritually awakened, they cannot act with real responsibility, and thus society is governed by the lowest common denominator of reactive, unexamined impulses.
Adi Da specifically critiques scientific materialism as a dominating force in contemporary culture. He describes it as a pseudo-religion rooted in the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of power, not liberation. This materialism displaces both genuine mysticism and the liberating function of true religion. The result is a society governed by technology and politics rather than by spiritual awakening and community wisdom. Religious illiteracy, particularly among the scientific and political elite, fuels this trend, reducing religion to simplistic ideas about a ‘Creator-God’ while rejecting the depth of mystical insight and transcendental understanding.
In his reflections on the politics of individuation, Adi Da goes further to identify the modern emphasis on personal autonomy as a culturally sanctioned form of egoism. What began a few centuries ago as a political advancement toward individual rights has, in his view, become an exaggerated form of self-contraction—cutting individuals off from the greater pattern of existence. This ‘politics of individuation‘ glorifies egoity and undermines our innate structure, which, according to Adi Da, is inherently oriented toward Enlightenment.
The challenge, he argues, is not to reject individuality but to align it with the universal structure of reality. True political and spiritual freedom comes not from asserting separateness but from transcending it through responsible participation in both community and the Divine. A true democratic order, for Adi Da, involves not only civic responsibility but also spiritual maturity: individuals cooperating with tolerance, engaged in sadhana, and oriented toward ultimate realization.
Both Aristotle and Adi Da identify the need for an internal transformation as essential to political health. Aristotle locates this in education and habituation toward virtue. Adi Da places it in spiritual awakening and the transcendence of ego. Both agree: a polity without inner discipline, without the cultivation of truth, justice, and participation, cannot endure.
In today’s world—where apathy, polarization, and demagoguery undermine democratic processes—the wisdom of these two voices is more urgent than ever. They call us not merely to vote or to protest, but to participate consciously, responsibly, and, ultimately, spiritually. For both thinkers, the outer shape of politics is a reflection of the inner condition of its citizens. If we are to reclaim the possibility of just governance, we must begin by reawakening the virtues that sustain it.
Thus, Aristotle and Adi Da, each in their own idiom, remind us that politics is not merely a strategy for power, but a sacred theater for the realization of the human—and the Divine—potential.
Bibliography
-
Aristotle. Politics. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Various editions.
-
Adi Da Samraj. Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced by the White House!. The Dawn Horse Press, 1980.
-
Adi Da Samraj. The Knee of Listening. The Dawn Horse Press, 1972.
-
Adi Da Samraj. The Peace Law: An Open Letter. The Dawn Horse Press.
-
Adi Da Samraj. The Brightening Way Talk Series. The Dawn Horse Press.
-
Adi Da Samraj. The Dawn Horse Testament. The Dawn Horse Press.
-
Beezone. “The Tyranny of the Literal: How We Forgot to Read the World.” www.beezone.com.
-
Korzybski, Alfred. “The map is not the territory.” In Science and Sanity, 1933.
-
Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. Various translations.
-
Dante Alighieri. De Monarchia. Translated by Prue Shaw, Cambridge University Press.