Quote:
Originally Posted by atomiclich
As the title said has anyone ever made a backround that would be based on the Plato's "ideal/utopian" republic? It would not be hard to translate these ideals to later ages (Transhumanist colony living on Platos Republics principles might be intresting).
Ok, I'm lazy because i'm asking has someone "done-this-before".
--Mika P.
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Arguable The Republic is just the old principle of separating the sword from the purse to keep the merchants from raiding and the warriors from taking bribes. Many societies, perhaps most, adopt this at least nominally and some go to ridiculous lengths about it. Europe has long been more practical. It has always had societies of fighting merchants even if those were not the majority and Athens was among them (Sparta however...). But it also had societies that tried to enact this separation, including sumptuary laws, and social cachets for being part of a "pure" warrior and political class as opposed to fighting from time to time. There are still traces of that even in America; not only can police not loot crime scenes but soldiers have to turn in loot even if it was the property of legitimate enemies. And of course often you can bribe a politician with an art object, or a concession to his clients when you couldn't do so with cash.
So The Republic is not a Utopia in the sense of not reflecting real societies. What it is that it's disadvantages are to great to make up for the problems it averts.