Gotta love the Republic - arguably the world's and certainly my top 5 pick of all time greats.
Every time I re-read it I get something new.. and that is over 12 times now.
I was just thinking: Neither Plato nor Socrates would be allowed to dwell in the Just City! That is without sacrificing a key element of their psychic makeup.
Even more telling the Republic could not be published in the Just City.
Socrates could not conduct his philo investigations with the Guardians in the hope of moving them to critical thinking.
I really don' see this book as satire. The problem is in the actual reading of the text (the famous: 'RFTB') Socrates loves his creation and his revolutionary proposals. He suggests the city is possible!
As my good friend Mr. Nietzsche would say (my paraphrase): I am a child of my time - like Wagner - a decadent - except that I have realized it and I have resisted it.
Maybe we can see the Republic as Plato's struggle vs. his own time's decadence.
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