What Plato captures here isn't the tired complaint that voting matters—it's something sharper: that passivity itself is a *choice* with consequences, not merely a neutral position. A good person who ignores politics doesn't simply fail to win; they actively hand authority to those with fewer scruples, the ones willing to do the unglamorous work of persuasion and power. Consider how local school boards operate: when conscientious parents stop attending meetings, the seats fill with those motivated by ideology or grievance, who show up precisely *because* they care intensely, whether wisely or not. The insight cuts deeper than civic duty—it exposes how goodness without engagement becomes complicit.