How Plato's Aristocracy is Misunderstood
The usefulness of using a character to anthropomorphize an idea is one of the greatest gifts, I believe, that the Ancient Greeks or Helens have to give us.
They use this modem in the belief around their Gods, just like most of the ancients. The Greeks however as I understand it, especially placed ideals in their idols- ascribing purity to Dionysus(Delphic), glory-manhood and chivalry to Mars (Sparta and Rome), wisdom to Athena (Athens Hellenic), creativity-art-and philosophy to Apollo (Delphic Hellenic)- while the elder and lesser Gods represented more nature.
Plato’s The Republic applies this same notion through a different lens. Through the character of Socrates, he expresses five characters. The Aristocratic, Timocratic, Oligarchic, Democratic, and Tyrannical Man.
Each one represents a type of government in its more microcosmic form, but ultimately what Plato is talking about in this story is states of consciousness. As he describes the descent into a democratic and tyrannical man, he gives notion to both a political system and the microcosmic example of the behavior of that system on the individual.
As the descent continues he talks about the behavior of the character in each system becoming more self-centered and indulgent, which is the descent of consciousness, as conciseness is caring and the tyrannical man cares nothing for the world around him.
Consciousness is introduced early in the book, as the Aristocratic government describes a system in which those with the highest consciousness would both rule the country and have no earthly possessions accept that which they needed to pursue philosophy and reach higher consciousness and caring.
The other men working in the field would be entitled to earthly possessions and sex as they were the ones of the earth. Today Plato’s Aristocracy is looked at as a hierarchy. But this is not so. It is simply a system which guarantees the spiritual enlightenment of its rulers. It is the only government plan to hold elements of both socialism, with the rulers living expenses and libraries being paid for by taxes. And the free market for those that were not philosophic Aristocrats.
This seems genius to me. To have a philosophic-socialist head and free-market body in a nation is something never even attempted so far as I know.