"Plato makes a wide variety of thought-provoking yet equally upsetting arguments through the literary manifestation of his mentor, Socrates, but while constructing his ideal society in The Republic, in my opinion, he touches on an issue that persists in modern society today (in a really messed up way).

While explaining his vision of the perfect city to his student, Glaucon, and a variety of interested Athenians, Socrates states, “This is the sort of medicine, and this is the sort of law, which you sanction in your State. They will minister to better natures, giving health both of soul and of body; but those who are diseased in their bodies they will leave to die, and the corrupt and incurable souls they will put an end to themselves” (Book III: 409e-410a).

Through Socrates, Plato explains that people in this ideal society will only suffer from one curable sickness. Those who are chronically ill will not receive medical treatment and will thus be allowed to die, while those who suffer from mental illness (“corrupt and incurable souls”) will similarly be denied treatment and, in Socrates’ opinion, will kill themselves or simply die off.

Plato believes that those who suffer from chronic diseases should be allowed to die off, as he states that those who suffer from chronic illness are not able to provide for the city as much as their healthy counterparts. Similarly, based on the ancient Hellenistic understanding of mental illness, Plato believes that those who suffer from a mental illness are being affected by some sort of supernatural spirit or a somehow corrupted soul. Therefore, these people are equally hindered in their ability to provide for the ideal city.

For Plato’s ideal society to be perfect, everyone must be running at 100% efficiency. Everyone has one job (which the state assigns them), must believe the lies that the state tells them, and they cannot be too strong nor too artsy and intellectual.

(I don’t think Plato noticed that his fascism was showing during this speech! How embarrassing!)

This society is an untenable absolutist nightmare. It is offensive, smothers individuality and free will, and calls for the death of entire groups of people”.

Lee Shaw