Skip to main content

Censorship Bad~ Logan Turner

Censorship. I can't stand the word. It goes against every fiber of my libertarian being. I guess that's why I really dislike the talk of censoring what the guardians are allowed to see, hear, and learn. It honestly goes way to far just to ensure that they have valid protectors. I think the worst violation is the fact that they won't be taught anything that portrays important people laughing. Really, Socrates? Laughter? I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure limiting someone's laughter violates their human rights. God forbid these guardians grow up to be mentally healthy. 

Which reminds me. By teaching them only stories that portray death as a good thing, they're essentially taught to disrespect death. Because of this, they're likely to just rush to their death instead of thinking tactically and trying to get an advantage. Personally, I think healthy fear of death is good, especially for anyone in charge of protecting others. That way, they think about situations in which they are least likely die, and execute a plan to create that situation. Instead, with Socrates' approach, they're likely to die a futile death and put others at risk of death at the same time. Honestly, censorship is never a good thing, and censoring what the guardians are allowed to hear and learn is one of the worst applications of censorship I could think of.


 Edit: Commented on Abigale Bell's and Isabelle Ferguson's posts

Comments

  1. I completely agree with you, Caroline. Laughter is the best medicine as people are apt to say. I like how you talk about them disrespecting death. Isn’t it natural to fear death? We all die at some point, some sooner than others. I feel like when generals are fighting, they’re more likely to find ways to fight battles with the least amount of deaths on their side. While filtering certain things isn’t always a bad thing, I do agree that censoring the guardians’ teaching is really bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, Logan. I somehow typed Caroline instead of your name. Note to self: don’t reply to people when I’m really tired.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovers of Wisdom, Not Power—Lily Caswell

In Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates talks about the possibility of having a well-governed city. However, he also talks about how that particular form of government is impossible to have. A well-governed city becomes a possibility only if you can discover a better way of life for your future rulers than holding office.” (Plato, p 215) Maybe his version of a better life was for those in office to not be lovers of power, since it would then become a fight among rival lovers. Socrates gets to the point that the only rulers who don’t love power are true philosophers. Philosophers are lovers of wisdom and knowledge and not power, ergo they are the perfect rulers. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely, so I’m thinking that maybe the trick to being a good ruler is for you to be a philosophical person who loves wisdom and not power. I commented on Jamie’s and Isabelle’s posts.

How to Make a Clone - Clabo

I found books three and four to be very cringy. I mean, to me the idea of structurally producing good soldiers/guardians through heavy censorship is somewhat inhumane. I feel as if human beings should be allowed to experience every bit of knowledge they can at some point in their lives. To me, it seems as if the guardians are being guarded against information throughout their entire lives so they can solely fulfill the duties they were birthed into.  However, the influence and importance Plato places on poetry and music do make me wonder what it would be like if we had the same values as our military today. What if the United States military invested in the souls of its soldiers and placed within them emotional and intellectual values outside of what they have learned previously. Perhaps the military instills values and principles within soldiers to fulfill the same purpose as the guardians would in Plato's Republic and that is to only be that which the government wants you to be....

Dystopian Origins Uncovered ////// Isabelle Ferguson

  I think that ideas eventually run out of originality and circle back to the original idea. During this week's reading, many of Socrates’ suggestions for a place of perfection reminded me of some novels I’ve read depicting dystopian worlds. Disclaimer: There are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.        To begin, in  The  Giver  by Lois Lowry censorship is a major theme. The novel is centered around a boy who is receiving memories withheld from the population! The government in The Giver is especially careful to censor the memories that may cause strife, anger, fear, sadness, etc. In the adults, this society is cemented. So, the government is especially strict with the youth. Socrates talks about verses to “obliterate” to prevent the descriptions from doing “harm to our future warriors” for the better half of Book III (Plato, page 44). The warriors he speaks of are the youth. He goes on to list the multitude of verses that should be done ...