Censorship brings about a just society?

I believe that the idea of censorship is one that a few people have touched on in their posts already, but this is the point that struck me most about The Republic so far. As a society, I think most of our ideas of utopia before this class were that in a very simplified form, utopia = freedom. When we take Dr. MB’s definition into account, we can see the flaw in our thinking but most people aren’t as lucky as us to be taking this class (not sarcastic!!)

So why do we associate utopia and freedom? I think this starts from the misconception that utopia is a perfect place and so for us freedom is perfection and so utopia is a free place.

In addition to this, there is the misconception of utopias and dystopias being the direct opposite. Dystopias are where only the privileged are free to do as they like and everyone else is oppressed and must rise against the evil dictators.

Reading The Republic challenges our ideas of what a utopia is. Socrates begins his excruciatingly long metaphor with the statement that he will present a just city to his listeners: “Perhaps, then, there is more justice in the larger thing, and it will be easier to learn what it is. So, if you’re willing, let’s first find out what sort of thing justice is in the city and afterwards look for it in the individual, observing the ways in which the smaller is similar to the larger” (Book II, 369a.) So we know from the beginning that Socrates is thinking of this fictional city as a utopia.

Socrates begins to explain how they will censor their literature and their mythology so that the citizens of this city will only hear stories that uphold the values of their society. He says “Whenever anyone says such things about a god, we’ll be angry with him, refuse him a chorus, and not allow his poetry to be used in the education of the young, so that our guardians will be as god-fearing and godlike as human beings can be” (Book II, 383c.)

This is where we are faced with the contradiction (in our previous beliefs) that a utopia is not necessarily free or our idea of benevolent.

The act of censorship in our society is viewed as an attack; historically, literature has generally been censored because it was written by oppressed people, or because the subject matter makes people uncomfortable. Here neither seems to apply. Socrates may be uncomfortable with the subject matter if only because he believes it will bring about less than desirable traits in the soldiers guarding the utopia.

In the end, all of this is an extended metaphor for what makes up a just man. If the soldiers exist in the city, they exist in the man. What Socrates seems to be expressing is a desire for censorship of the education, information, and literature we consume, even when those may be as beautiful as Homer’s poetry.

I’m not sure about you but this doesn’t sound like a utopia I would want to live in.