I can't tell you how disappointed I am in Plato. Here I thought he was this great philosopher but in his Republic where he explores the idea of the ideal, utopian society, he totally puts down artists. Pretty much according to him, artists mainly poets, as he calls them, shouldn't be allowed in a civil and just society because they pollute the minds of the citizens. If you have them at all, they should be heavily censored and allowed to create only things that ennoble the gods and man. For example, fear of death is a bad thing so it is a taboo subject as is tragedy and or comedy. Boy, I bet the Athenian play-writes really liked him. Artists must never entertain anyone, just bore them to death. No fear there. It's a good thing no one ever really took him seriously because just about everything we know about ancient Greek culture is through the arts. Imagine, all we would have left is Plato and a totally wrong view of what they were like. He even thought Homer's Iliad should be censored because, (1) He made Zeus look petty and belligerent(which he was) and (2) He made the hero Achilles look non- heroic and whinny. Gods and heros must always look good because whatever you read you will become. I think he gives artists way too much credit.

Another thing that bugs me is that he thought that artists spoke the lowest level of the language. Excuse me! Artists speak the highest form of the language. Good grief. Imagine being married to this guy. Okay, one good thing he did was say that women should be educated the same as men. In that system of no beautiful or inspiring things to read or see, who would would care if they got educated. Ignorance is bliss, in this case anyway. How ironic, we finally find a guy who wants to give us equal rights and this is what we get.