Plato; Another Old Man

Plato is dated.  He just is.  He was a man that sought the truth and the true goodness in the world but his definitions of goodness and his process of going about the systemic uplifting of society can be held in stark contrast to our American ways.  We value individuality and freedom of speech yet the entire Book II of his Republic is completely about how he will censor what is written and what may be read for children and adults.  He feels that anybody, especially children, shouldn’t be exposed to untrue, distorted images of nature and of Gods and how they behave, what they do, what form they take, and so on.  However, his own ideal of what is acceptable or not isn’t the end-all-be-all and even he uses rhetoric and manipulates the language by nature of the book.  He presents logic, he leads the conversation, the one he is conversing with always agrees.  He attempted his own sophistry but in the context of today’s world, people question everything, we’re told to question everything.  Even now this blog is devoted to a critical theories class that promotes critical thinking and questioning and interpretation of theories.  It all boils down to Plato’s ideals being simply theory and that his assertions only stand on the basis that we believe him to be the absolute authority on goodness and truth which of course, many of us don’t.  He wants us to censor lust but America sells sex, he wants us to be stoic but movies and drama are major sources of our entertainment, he wants to censor the greed and violence in heros yet we have the egoists in Superman and Thor, alcoholics in Antman and Ironman, the rage of The Hulk, and many various figures praised for the beatings they give the villain.  Plato wants a lot of things and society has eventually grown to counter it.  The kicker is that in spite of our society being unparalleled with his utopia the way we live today is satisfying despite our fair share of troubles.  He is just dated.