A Good Conspiracy: Is the USA a Replica of Plato’s Republic?

Our social system is not what it seems.

Simply put, here is the conspiracy: Our social system and social prejudices are backwards. The rich and famous celebrities are awarded the highest honors in our society, but according to Plato people in the military should be more valuable than common civilians (regardless of whether they are rich and famous celebrities), and politicians (although they are the most frowned upon people in society) should be in the most noble, most esteemed position in society.

In Plato’s Republic there are three classes. The lowest class is artisans, made up or merchants and farmers and artists who have the virtue of temperance. The middle class is warriors, made up of warriors who have the virtue of courage. The ruling class is Guardians, made up of thinkers who have the virtue of wisdom.

These classes seem to exist today in America. The lower class of Artisans is the majority of the civilian world… ignorant and mindless, but they are the backbone of our economy. The Warriors are in our military, living by a code of duty, honor, and country. The Guardians are our politicians who are supposed to be wise, but our politicians today seem to have been corrupted. While most of our “Guardians” today are not worthy to be called Guardians, if we go back to our Founding Fathers, they were a very good example people Plato would label a Guardian. Our country was full of well-reasoned brilliant thinkers; think George Washington, who spoke out against foreign entanglements and the creation of political parties, think Thomas Jefferson, who drafted our Declaration of Independence “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” think Benjamin Franklin, who was partially responsible for uniting America with his “Join or die” cartoon, among many other brilliant thinkers. If there was ever a group more fit to be labeled “Guardians,” it was our Founding Fathers.

Today, the artisans class has basically stolen the honor that the military and government deserve.

If we live in a country based on Plato’s Republic, then our current social system is an illusion. While most people frown upon the military, the military is actually an institution of higher value compared to the institutions of the common people. And politicians seem to be the most frowned upon in society, but the government is actually the institution of highest value in our society.

If we go back to the roots of our country’s ideals, we will find that at the top of the social ladder are politicians, below that are warriors, and below that are artisans. This ladder seems to be flipping in the pop culture of today’s world, but the good news is the reign of pop culture is only an illusion, any true thinker is able to discover that the military and government are institutions of higher calling.

Some really well thought out points I enjoyed reading!
But your "illusion" idea of the Artisans being ahead of the Warrior class isn't an illusion because it's as real as the fact that if you work your way up the military you still get paid a fraction of what those who have worked their way up the acting-celebrities world recieve.
It just so happens that if a nation needs to survive then it needs a military more than music, though some people might question that!

Plato wasen't trying to look at the world from a social staus perspective, just from a national, power base, perspective. When you look at American government it's the military that gets more of economy than the wages of politicans, or the wages of actors-foot ballers ect combined. So America is more of a Warrior Class, Republic, but with (at least the self-image) of a "Artisan" one

Originally posted by Liberal1984

But your "illusion" idea of the Artisans being ahead of the Warrior class isn't an illusion because it's as real as the fact that if you work your way up the military you still get paid a fraction of what those who have worked their way up the acting-celebrities world recieve.

You make a good point. By our modern value system, which judges a person's value by how much money he/she makes, the Warrior and Guardian classes are less valuable than the Artisan class. But Plato's value system has nothing to do with how much money someone makes, it has to do with how well a person is serving his purpose in his country, whether his purpose is to be an Artisan or Warrior or Guardian. Naturally, the Warriors and Guardians are more important because they protect the Artisans.

The modern value system as you said is very real, but it is not meant to be real according to Plato, that is what I was trying to say by saying it is an "illusion." If the USA is truly a replica of Plato's Republic, then our Founding Fathers did not intend for our country to run by a monetary value system; our Founding Fathers planted the roots of a system that was intended to be run by virtue, but our monetary value system today exists without the roots that our Founding Fathers planted.

If the true roots of our government are in Plato's Republic, then our monetary value system isn't really there, it IS an illusion.

Plato's ideal republic is totalitarian republic. It suppress all individualism. What is "good" or "honesty" is declared by guardians (i.e. by Plato). He was proponent of aristocratic party and fiercely opposed democracy (and he had good reasons here). The Republic is so stupid book that many thinks that it is in fact warning - something like Brave New World by A. Huxley. It is probably first theory of social engineering. While it is really good to have public schools it is really bad to dictate what and how such schools should teach - and it is exactly what Plato wants. Personally I do not think that The Republic is warning - it is just bad book by otherwise brilliant author.

Originally posted by zeddissad
Plato's ideal republic is totalitarian republic. It suppress all individualism. What is "good" or "honesty" is declared by guardians (i.e. by Plato). He was proponent of aristocratic party and fiercely opposed democracy (and he had good reasons here). The Republic is so stupid book that many thinks that it is in fact warning - something like Brave New World by A. Huxley. It is probably first theory of social engineering. While it is really good to have public schools it is really bad to dictate what and how such schools should teach - and it is exactly what Plato wants. Personally I do not think that The Republic is warning - it is just bad book by otherwise brilliant author.

I'm asking you to consider the possibility that our country is a totalitarian republic, that what is "good" for us is declared by our ruling class, that our elections aren't actually free.

As for your statement that The Republic is like Brave New World that is a big stretch. There is speculation that The Republic is what you say, "a warning," but this speculation is by no means confirmed. It is safer to say The Republic is simply a work of Plato's political theory. Brave New World most certainly is a warning, and unlike The Republic, it is not just speculation that it is a warning, it is a fact. You can't say The Republic is like Brave New World because you are putting speculation and fact on the same footing.