 I came across a quote recently while listening to an address given in 1933 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and philosopher Will Durant. It seemed to be a speech centered on statesmanship, as contents were intriguing, and the quote which I mentioned was given at the speech's conclusion. He said, one of the functions of statesmanship is to limit liberty in order to limit inequality in order to preserve the same. I believe its message to be important and would like to illuminate it if I can. It can be observed that throughout history, the realization of liberty within a society has always corresponded with an increasing state of inequality. In like manner, the closer liberty comes to being complete, the more apparent and egregious the situation becomes. The reason for this is simple, biology. The natural state of man is one of inequality, and what is liberty and freedom in its completed form but man's return to a natural state, free from the control and hindrances placed upon him by societal rules and regulations. This state of affairs is nowhere more apparent than on the economic front, since wealth tends to flow uphill. What we see in a state which approaches, more or less, complete liberty, is an increasing concentration of wealth to a select few individuals and organizations. This course of events is destined for but a single conclusion, which is this, that when this wealth inequality reaches its threshold and the citizenry become angered and dispossessed, they begin to organize against the established power and once sufficient resistance has been gained, proceed to disassemble those systems which brought about their perceived sufferings. This cycle begins once more upon the destruction of its predecessor, building back those same systems which will inevitably bring about its successor, so on and on, ad nauseam. Thus the importance of maintaining some semblance of equality in what is accrued by each individual and or organization becomes clear and is even necessary to maintaining unity within a given state. In some degree, the established authority would be wise to utilize their centralized control to limit freedom and the excessive widening of the economic gap if they wished to avoid revolution and revolt. Thus, one of the functions of statesmanship is to limit liberty in order to limit inequality in order to preserve the same. I chose to illuminate this topic and these words due to its continued poignancy throughout the history of organized society, as well as because even in our day, the hostile debate between parties rages on, just as it had in the days of Plato and Aristotle. The debate, of course, is on the amount to which the state should intervene on behalf of the dispossessed. In the West, we refer to this centralized government aid as the welfare state and I believe it fair to say that it is as much trusted by one party as it is distrusted by the other. I will save that discussion for a later video, so if you are interested in this topic and others like it, be sure to like the video and subscribe. As always, thank you for talking philosophy with me. Until next time.