Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, which literally translates to "Who will guard the guards themselves?", and is variously translated in colloquial English as "Who watches the watchmen?", "Who watches the watchers?", "Who will guard the guards?", "Who shall watch the watchers?", "Who polices the police?" or other similar translations.
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[edit] History
The essential problem was posed by Plato in the Republic, his work on government and morality. The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character of the work (see Socratic dialogue), relies on laborers, slaves and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city. The question is put to Socrates, "Who will guard the guardians?" or, "Who will protect us against the protectors?" Plato's answer to this is that they will guard themselves against themselves. We must tell the guardians a "noble lie."[1] The noble lie will inform them that they are better than those they serve and it is therefore their responsibility to guard and protect those lesser than themselves. We will instill in them a distaste for power or privilege; they will rule because they believe it right, not because they desire it.
[edit] Usage
The saying has since been used to explore the question of where ultimate power should reside. Some forms of government attempt to solve this problem through separation of powers (the government of the United States is one example). As long as the "watchers" are a small and potentially corruptible group, the question asked is a sort of paradox, and perhaps an example of infinite regress.
[edit] Origin
The phrase as it is normally quoted in Latin comes from the Satires of Juvenal, the 1st/2nd century Roman satirist. Although in its modern usage the phrase has universal, timeless applications to concepts such as tyrannical governments and uncontrollably oppressive dictatorships, in context within Juvenal's poem it refers to the impossibility of enforcing moral behavior on women when the enforcers (custodes) are corruptible (Satire 6.346–348):
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However, modern editors regard these three lines as an interpolation inserted into the text. In 1899 an undergraduate student at Oxford, E.O. Winstedt, discovered a manuscript (now known as O, for Oxoniensis) containing 34 lines which some believe to have been omitted from other texts of Juvenal's poem.[2] The debate on this manuscript is ongoing, but even if the poem is not by Juvenal, it is likely that it preserves the original context of the phrase.[3] If so, the original context is as follows (O 29–33):
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[edit] In literature and media
- One well-known contemporary interpretation of this concept is found in the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which takes its name from the phrase "Who watches the Watchmen?".
- In Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein it is the motto of the The Patrol (a military organization).
- Dan Brown's Digital Fortress discusses the intricate balance between national security and personal privacy: who has the right to peek in others' emails in the name of national security - Who will guard them?
- The novel Thud! by Terry Pratchett and various other novels by the same author; it is a phrase often used by Samuel Vimes and the other members of the Ankh Morpork city watch. In Thud! the question is answered when a theoretical watchman in Sam Vimes' consciousness says that he watches him, similar to a conscience. Sam has created a watcher in his own mind who watches him, and therefore is watching himself. The watchman himself watches the watchmen. See paradox and turtles all the way down.
- An episode of The Simpsons, Homer the Vigilante, in which Lisa asks Homer this. His response: "I dunno. Coast Guard?"
- An episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation is titled "Who Watches the Watchers."
- An episode of Justice League Unlimited concluding the Project Cadmus story-arc that garnered a lot of distrust for the League by humanity, Batman quietly posed the question to Green Arrow regarding the more powerful members of the League such as Superman. Green Arrow responded with "we have it covered."
- William Easterly in The White Man's Burden approximates it as, "Why would you trust a government official any more than you would a shoplifting serial killer?"[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Plato (427? BC-347? BC), Translated by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893). "The Republic". Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm. "How then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods of which we lately spoke—just one royal lie which may deceive the rulers, if that be possible, and at any rate the rest of the city?"
- ^ E.O. Winstedt 1899, "A Bodleian MS of Juvenal", Classical Review 13: 201–205.
- ^ Recently J.D. Sosin 2000, "Ausonius' Juvenal and the Winstedt fragment", Classical Philology 95.2: 199–206 has argued for an early date for the poem.
- ^ The White Man's Burden, p. 117
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Satire VI in Latin, at The Latin Library
- Satire VI in English (translation by G.G. Ramsay) at the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
