Inexperience Isn't a Selling Point

Politics Hasn't Changed Much Since 350 B.C.

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Modern would-be politicians often advertise their complete lack of governing experience as a selling point. The same was true in ancient Athens. 

Xenophon tells us Socrates mocked an experience-free but eager man named Euthydemus by imagining the speech he’d give at the Athenian Assembly. Making analogies between statesmanship and other professions, he suggests Euthydemus might also seek to be appointed doctor.

“Men of Athens, I have never yet studied medicine, nor sought to find a teacher among our physicians; for I have constantly avoided learning anything from the physicians, and even the appearance of having studied their art. Nevertheless I ask you to appoint me to the office of a physician, and I will endeavor to learn by experimenting on you.”

How little has changed.