Arguably the worst thing to happen in recent human history is the rise of Communism. No knows exactly how many people have died from Communism, but it has been estimated that it is way over 100 million. All throughout book III, I see communistic tendencies in this "city" that Socrates wants.
First off, there is no freedom of choice in career paths for the citizens. The government decides what the citizens can do based off there skill set. They are not allowed to do anything they want to do. Second the government decides what the people learn. Right on the first page of book three, Socrates said, "What about any man who believes the underworld is real and terrible? Will he be fearless? In battle, will he prefer death to defeat and slavery?" (Plato 82). He then says that these passages describing how terrible Hades is must be banned so that the soldiers will not be scared of death. He says needs to be done to other areas like the gods and heros. The passages describing how terrible they are must be removed. Socrates wants this done because he has a preconceived idea on how these things should be. Thirdly, the government decides what people can write and how they write it. This means no freedom of the press.
What Socrates is creating is a communist dictatorship. The government takes the place of god and it can do whatever it wants to. This quote sums it up best: "Now if the ruler of a city catches anybody lying--besides himself. . . he will punish them for subversive practice" (86). Notice he said "besides himself." This is exactly how the dictators of communist countries work. They are there own gods.
I commented on Lily Caswell's and Haylee Lynd's post
Hi Braylan! I enjoyed reading your post. You have an interesting take on the ideas Socrates brought to light. I think, in his vision, the laws were perfect in that they were all for the good of the people. The leaders would have been brought up from childhood to know the laws and to fulfill them. The laws themselves are what take on the deistic role. I agree, though, that this whole picture is very similar to that of a communist governement.
ReplyDeleteI actually did not think about Socrates’ city being like a Communist dictatorship but it really makes a lot of sense. Everyone does one individual thing so the whole community thrives, which is extremely similar to Communist countries. Very nice post, Braylan.
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