A Funny Thing Happened During Allocated "Procrastination" Time...

I'm going to take a quick step out of my ordinary blogging style (An angel, the Devil, and MJ), and discuss something quickly that I found particularly interesting.

As a frequent online role-player on Dreamwidth, I find myself bombarded by a variety of role-playing games where one can do pretty much anything with their characters that they could possibly want at pretty much any time. There are games for horror, games for sex (not that I would ever join one of those or anything) and the like. I frequent a place called bakerstreet, that is a "meme" community, specializing in short, one-shot game threads for people to play in. There are usually topics one can use from (or use a random generator to get a random number for) and character options to keep your character in the "world" of the meme when tagging (aka: playing) with other people.

I have been playing in a long-running "thread" for the last few weeks in a particular meme, and it wasn't until today that I realized something. This meme is a Dystopia Meme. The word "Dystopia" is so frequently used in fiction for me that I didn't even recognize until now that it relates directly to this class and what we're working on. I don't think that an actual "Utopia" meme has ever appeared in this roleplaying community, perhaps because Utopia would not mean drama, and unless you're a PWP writer without a life, that's no fun at all.

Now, some of the options chosen by the meme's creator, steahl, are very interesting. There is a subject of "Class" as one of the options to be chosen. S/he gives options from "High/Royalty" to "Transitory", with everything in the middle from "alien" to "pariah" to "created". I find the fact that class is such an important issue very interesting in this meme. It reminds me of Plato's "The Republic", and the importance of the class within the city Socrates had created. This sort of a topic is almost never seen in memes, since "class" isn't something most Americans think of. Even in historical or "royal" AUs (that is, Alternate Universes), class doesn't come up, but steahl sees is as an important part of the meme. In #22 of the "Prompts" section, s/he even mentions "the City". An interesting mention, probably relating back to "the Republic".

The next section, the one I just mentioned, is the Prompts section. It's fairly standard fare for a meme, from "mix and mingle" to "SCIENCE" and "Brave New World". They throw in little references to all sorts of different utopian and dystopian books and movies, which, again, I didn't even think to relate to a class on Utopia until just now. There's even a subtle nod to Firefly, which I have always seen as one of the ultimate dystopian stories.

The most important thing in this meme to me is that this is all set in a futuristic setting. Unlike Plato or More, who see Utopia as something that can be achieved now, this meme sets up utopia (or, in this case, dystopia) as something that has to be made in the future.

Just FYI: My thread involves a "created" character living in a futuristic New York that is blotted out by pollution and riddled with crime and drugs while the elite sit on their high towers. In other words: Standard Dystopian fare. What do you think makes this "standard" for Dystopia? Why do you think I failed to notice that this was so intimately related to this class?

What are your thoughts on this? Besides the fact that I am clearly a huge loser.

Also, if you work out which character is mine, DO NOT EVER TELL ME THAT YOU KNOW.

Also, standard disclaimer: I haven't read all of the threads, some of them could very well be NSFW (that is internet speak for Not Safe For Work/School).

Is Plato's Republic really an early Western example of what Sargent calls a utopia?

Plato's Republic works on multiple levels and may be considered as a set of ideas for living a moderate life, as well as a metaphor for the soul and the role of justice within it. However, I had my doubts as to whether or not Plato's Republic fit the bill of a utopia. As I read the required sections, it seemed too different from my preconceived ideas of what I thought a work about a utopia should be like and at first glance, seems too distant from Sargent's definitions of what makes a work utopian. In my mind, a work about a utopia should already exist in time and space and be described by the narrator, rather than be constructed and tweaked by philosophers on the fly. Furthermore, The Republic seem to be more about the nature of justice rather than a better society, as Sargent partially defines utopia. Some more thinking about this, in the context of Plato being held up as an example of a classical effort in the direction of a utopia, is clearly in order.

I begin with Sargent's (9) definition of a utopia:

• social dreaming

• a non-existent society; 

• described in considerable detail;

• normally located in time and space; and

• something that the author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as considerably better than the society in which that reader lived. 

With this definition in mind, I drew up this T-chart to try and decide whether or not Plato's Republic was an example of a utopia:

Read me a story...

Regardless of how we feel about the strict rules of censorship that Socrates proposes for his kallipolis, there can be no doubt that he is a firm believer in the importance of stories.

Big Bird and Friends gather 'round for a good story.
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Read_Me_a_Story

Socrates tells us that the stories we listen to as a young child play a key role in forming our morality. They also teach lessons - whether intentional or not - about the types of behavior that are permitted.

To be honest, I'm not sure that I find Socrates to be that far off the mark. I don't know how many of those good ol' Greek myths I'd want to use as bedtime stories for young children. Those gods and heroes do get up to some wacky hi-jinks, don't they?

But aside from the concerns of the content and form of the stories, something that struck me about Socrates' discussion is how it highlights a group of people that we wouldn't naturally associate with loads of power in this particular utopia. Not just the storytellers, but the "nurses and mothers" (53). They are the first educators, the ones who nurture the guardians when they are their youngest and most vulnerable. (Not the philosophers, who will presumably get their hands on the young men - literally and figuratively - once they are ready for a more formal education.) It's those nurses and mothers who must be "persuaded" to choose good tales for the wee guardians. Is it me, or does Socrates seem a bit insecure about whether or not those nurses and mothers will listen to his persuasion?

So let's hear it for those mothers and nurses. They are the linchpin of the kallipolis, whether in Ancient Greece or the contemporary US. Our stories are still what teach us our morality and guide us in our behavior. And is that is as it should be.

Hierarchical Benevolence for Plato's Polis

I have just finished Book II of The Republic. Those who want Plato to promote a classless society, or those who wish there to be no political or structural divisions, will be sorely disappointed. While there is no mention of distinction in wealth, Book II tells us that there are clear divisions in society. He introduces us to the role of the Guardians of this polis, this “luxurious city…[the] city with a fever” (373a) and how they relate to the other people within the city.

These days, those who hear the term "hierarchy," I believe, automatically think of an oppressive, rich-controlling-poor, powerful-controlling-weak structure of society.  Here, in Book II, Plato means less this:

comparingeconomicsystems.wikispaces.com

Anyone else see a wedding cake design here? 

(click here to enlarge)

And more this:

Examiner.com

This is how people realistically celebrate.

 

            The Guardians are a lot like a benevolent leader in an organization. Just as the boss depends on the coworkers to keep the company in production, the coworkers depend on the boss to keep the company unified and safe. The Guardians’ role, like the boss’s, “is most important, [requiring] most freedom from other things and the greatest skill and devotion” (374e).

That being said, this privilege of rank for the Guardians does not mean that they have the right to look down on their politically inferior: “Yet surely they must be gentle to their own people and harsh to the enemy. If they aren’t they won’t wait around for others to destroy the city but will do it themselves first” (375c). If the Guardians act as an elitist, cruel group of thugs, then surely the farmer, the builder, the weaver, and the doctors will refuse to care for them. Since Plato established that it is better for the farmer only to farm, the builder only to build, the doctor only to care for the ill and weak, and the guardians only to protect and expand (370a; 374a), then the Guardians will be left alone with only the skills to defend and attack, not the skills to survive.

There is also the issue of educating the Guardians from a young age, which adds an additional layer of dependence on others.

            

Halloweencostumes.com

Our future military in training

            Although this Book does not tell us who exactly will educate the Guardians, we can clearly see that these future soldiers will be taught to learn, at this age of development, the stories of the virtuous gods and the common good for society. “If we want the guardians of our city to think that it’s shameful to be easily provoked into hating one another, we mustn’t allow any stories about gods warring, fighting, or plotting against one another” (378b-c).

paintingselect.com

 Sibling rivalry was a lot tougher back then.

To teach stories about the hateful and jealous gods, bickering and fighting amongst each other, would corrupt the future Guardians’ mindset of society. The Guardians are therefore extremely dependent on their educators – their entire existence in this tier is thanks to these people.

            Classless societies, to Plato, do not cut it. Equality in rank does not mean equality in acceptance and charity. Likewise, a structural hierarchy of rulers and workers, even if based on a skill of a very specific trade, should not bring out an oligarchical or tyrannical rule, where the powerful rules however they want solely because they can. The common good of the polis trumps their personal ambitions.

Let us see how Books III and IV answer and expand on this post, if at all.

Desserts Are The Backbone of Peace

Presently, I am wrapped up in Plato's The Republic, getting a head-start on the next reading for class. I am merely on the third of 40 pages and I am caught up in a fit of laughter at the ideas these philosophers are throwing around about making a city. 

First, they started out with the conclusion that to have a foundation for a city, one only needs four or five men: one a farmer, one a builder, one a weaver, one a cobbler and one a doctor. Hah! What a boring city that would be. 

Image courtesy of rootsweb.ancestry.com

Imagine living in a city with only five people. There would be no laws. There would be no entertainment, even! Us Americans just love celebrities, and in this contrived society, there would be....no. Justin. Bieber. Chaos ensues. 

Quickly, though, my laughter returns when the philosophers realize that four or five men is simply not enough for a sufficient city. Of course no one will want to spend all their time making enough of the staples of life for themselves and everyone else. Why should one man have to grow enough wheat for five? It's simply unfair. 

Cue the next realization: there needs to be imports! Imagine if Americans had to be completely self-sufficient without the aid of any foreign countries. When would there be time for an afternoon siesta? There may be some benefits, though. I imagine that obesity would greatly decrease if the majority of the population had to work to sustain the whole country. More and more people would be involved in physical labor, eliminating what I like to call the "desk-job love handles." Also, I imagine that technology would vastly improve. People would naturally get hurt on the job, so why not build a machine that would do it for you? Technology may evolve into something helpful rather than mindless. But, I guess iPads have already done their damage...

And the pièce de resistance: dessert. One of the philosophers somehow forgot the obvious need for food items like salt, olives and cheese. Thinking on this track, he came to the conclusion that they would "give them desserts, too, of course, consisting of figs, chickpeas, and beans, and they'll roast myrtle and acorns before the fire, drinking moderately. And so they'll live in peace and good health" (Plato, 47). 

Image courtesy of chiwulff.com

What took him so long to realize that the key to an appeased population is desserts and the moderate drink?? If only the problems of modern-day life could be solved with a slice of apple pie and a glass of Chardonnay. 

I have so far found this reading quite entertaining, especially since the city the philosophers have been planning seems to have come to ground in 3 pages. Who knows what treasures lie ahead for me?