Ameritopia_ The Unmaking of America - Mark R. Levin [12]
Plato’s first proposal for the Republic’s Ideal City is described as a “true and healthy” model for utopian life. This city provides for only the most basic needs of its citizens—food, shelter, clothing, and shoes. It is constructed on a simple division of labor where each individual does a single job based on his most productive skills. Each individual accepts his position in the City and does what he is supposed to do for the benefit of himself and the other citizens. He does this because all of his needs are met.
There is no competition among the citizens, and since the City is perfectly just, there is no need for a government. The Ideal City does not have any luxuries—including furniture, entertainment, and meat (369–372c).
Plato acknowledges that this most basic city is not one with which many will be satisfied, because of its overly simple way of life (373a). Therefore, he constructs another Ideal City, which he describes as “feverish” and “luxurious,” but which accommodates human desire (372e). In truth, what it promotes is, for most, the individual’s subservience to the state—state control of private property, health care, the workforce, housing, and more. It establishes a strict class system and uses eugenics, euthanasia, arranged marriages, and the ongoing indoctrination of the masses to maintain unity in the “just society.” And it is built on a foundation of falsehoods, propaganda, and censorship. The intention is to create an aristocratic ruling class of philosophers—Guardians—who will rule wisely and guide the City.2 Of course, there is little to prevent the ruling class from abusing its power and ruling on its own behalf, as history has demonstrated time and again.
The “feverish” City will allow certain luxuries, like “sofas and tables and other furniture; also dainties and perfumes and incense and courtesans, and cakes … and gold and ivory and all sorts of materials [that] must be procured” (373a). The Guardians determine who gets what.
The Ideal City will then need to enlarge its borders as it will “fill and swell with a multitude of callings which are not required by any natural want.…” (373b) Pasture and tillage land will also be needed, which Plato argues will have to come from neighboring cities, which will also threaten expansion (373d). This will require the City to develop the capacity to make war (373d). A warrior class of Auxiliaries must, therefore, be cultivated (373e–374a). They will be trained to be aggressive and ruthless, but must also be controlled so as to keep them gentle toward the citizens of the City (375e). The Auxiliaries serve the Guardians, the latter being the only class trained in reason. The Guardians are to be a pure race of leaders, originally bred from the best citizens (415a).
Plato takes his class structure very far. He invents the “noble lie”—a contrivance taught from the earliest age that each person is born of the earth rather than from a mother. Moreover, each individual is said to be born with a particular metal—gold, silver, or bronze—intermingled in his or her body. The metal determines the person’s status and relative worth in the City—the gold-souled citizens are the Guardians, the silver-souled citizens are the Auxiliaries, and the bronze-souled citizens are the Producers (although they are treated more like slaves) (415a).
The City’s unity and stability, essential in the Republic, require that its citizens be conditioned to accept their positions and surrender their personal desires to the needs of the City. The individual’s happiness is secondary to the general welfare of the City. Individuals are conditioned to suppress their personal desires in favor of acting for the common good. “The noble lie,” therefore, is supposedly necessary because it promotes universal acceptance of the individual’s class status. Citizens will feel more kinship with the City, eliminate political factionalism and civil strife, and promote patriotism (415d).
The City is structured to exercise absolute control, a top priority being