This post has nothing to do with the Super Bowl. I'm sorry. I lied...But that's okay. I mean, not to Plato but who cares, he's way past dead. He's dust.
I know that sounds mean but I just finished books 2 and 3 of Plato's Republic and I am mentally drained. I go into the reading expecting to learn all about Plato's idea of justice and injustice. Nope, I get the building of a hypothetical city. That part is groovy. I can totally dig it. It was the education bit that bugged me.
Now, we all know how I feel about education. Well, I don't agree at all with the censorship that Socrates is proposing. He is making the assumption that if all that is bad or represents what they believe to be bad is removed. If it can be taken out completely so it's not exposed to the youth so it won't inspire them to do the bad things. This is garbage.
This is the argument made today about so many things including sex education and video games. I, as a person who see immense value in both of those things, am offended that it is assumed that I don't have the ability discern what is good. I thinks its offensive because it assumes that people can't make their own moral decisions.
Okay, I thought I could multitask and write up a blog and watch the Super Bowl. Well, I am too busy cracking up at the power outage.
THIS ENTRY WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NUMBER 250!
I felt the same mental drain you did after reading The Republic. I agree with your thoughts on their "education" and how they assume we as a society can't make our own moral decisions. There is value in learning about "bad things" - you learn of consequences, which is valuable information. And who are they to dictate what is bad...that is a personal opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe censorship being a problem was something that I did'nt like when I was reading this.One of the things that also bugged me was how the whole reading was supposed to be about justice and injustice but it was more about this mental city that he created. When it finally came back to justice and injustice, he answered it with 1 sentence, it was way too simple and the definition was based on his city and not a general definition.
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