Plato's Republic (-inez-)

I read Part 3- Education: The First Stage

“Our first business is to supervise the production of stories, and choose only those we think suitable, and reject the rest”, as “opinions formed at that age are usually difficult to eradicate or change.” (children)

I think what is proposed here is acceptable, as children, after all learn things easily and can be easily led astray. I think their collective experiences throughout the early parts of their lives help in shaping their moral compasses, so perhaps it is wise to control what children are told and taught.
Children nowadays still listen to fairytales, watch Disney movies and watch cartoons, with perfect endings, where the good guys are heroic, upright, moral and always victorious. So we do agree in a sense with what Plato says after all!

“Every possible step must be taken to prevent anyone… saying… that god, being good, can cause harm or evil to any man.”

“We must ask the poets to stop giving their present gloomy account of the after-life, which is both untrue and unsuitable to produce a fighting spirit, and make them speak more favourably of it.”

As I continued reading, I found it harder to agree with Plato’s views. I think it is fine to control a child’s education but literature read by those grown up should in no way be controlled. Poetry and music are works of art and the way Plato proposes them to be restricted seems rather appalling. I imagine that if such rules were put in place today, book plots would be formulaic, artwork would be uniform and poetry would be only about stoicism and bravery. Inevitably, this lack of variety would probably produce people who would probably be members of Plato’s ideal society. However, I think it is not relevant today, we have come too far to revert to such an education system and an education system like that would undoubtedly be considered primitive today. I think freedom to produce artwork and give opinions is better! Granted, there are those who could be influenced adversely by such work but why whould we sacrifice the dynamism of art and our society for a wholly uniform, one-toned world?