Sorry, but all I pick up from the parable is that only seamen should be allowed to appoint a ships captain and only politicians should be allowed to pick a ruler and that, by extension, both these occupations are merely exercises in technical management. I disagree because whether it is a ship of the sea or the ship of state, we, the passengers should have a say in, for example, where the ship goes, what interests it serves and how its passengers should be treated.I do not think that Socrates was suggesting that the captain of a ship or a bus driver were suitable to run a country. I think that what he was suggesting is that you look at the set of skills that would be required to be a bus driver or run a country and then you pick a person with those skills.
As regards Churchill, it is hardly the preserve of amateurs to make mistakes when predicting the future. Without in any way singling him out, in much the same way, the opinion of Hugh Elles, MGO 1934-1938, that tanks had had their day, was a significant factor in the quality and quantity of tanks the British Army disposed of in 1939. Elles, a career officer and graduate of the Royal Military Academy and Staff College with a track record as commander of the Tank Corps in WW1 and the Tank Corps Training Centre afterwards, cannot be considered in any way an amateur. Nor was he a fool.