Journal #6
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Equality is a subject that Socrates deals with from an interesting perspective. Socrates’ luxurious city has no room for people that cannot add something of value to society and therefore gives them nothing in return. Everyone is not completely equal in all things, opposing the ideas that are indoctrinated into the youth of this country through the government school systems.
Socrates points out that women are not equal to men in all things, in fact women are often more suited for certain tasks above others. Specificly Socrates presents the view that women are best able to carry out the tasks of child birth and rearing, and other household care tasks. Socrates also presents the view that all women should be given the same education and training as men.
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What a unique idea! Women recieve the same training as their male counterparts, but are still tasked to birth and raise children above any physical exertions such as warfare. Personally I believe that this idea is party true and just. Women, in general, are much better at the tasks that are necessary to the longevity of a society such as child care than men are. There are certainly exceptions in both sexes. The question also arises though, why are women more suited. I honestly don’t know for sure, part of it must be physiological structure, psychological structure, and societal training all combined together to produce the confounding creatures that women are.
The more important question that socrates raises is that of this ideal societies unusual practices of reproduction. I’m not sure if I understand why Socrates is attempting to lead his audience down a fools path. But he is certainly leading their responses through the manner he conducts his reasoning. He is able to show that his audience is unable to think clearly about the subject they are discussing. Socrates speaks of these ideas in broad general terms. And is therefore able to convince them that this society would be better off if there was no marriage and if all the women were owned in common by all the men and that traditional family structure should be removed completely.
The society that socrates has been describing is beginning to sound a lot like the societies that are often described in modern science fiction as a terrifying possibility of the future. The strange removal of marriage and family customs to improve the functioning and efficiency of the whole society is an idea that has been brought up in many cautionary tales in the past century.
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