Plato's utopia
Plato proposed the construction of the Republic, the earliest utopia of mankind, in the first part of the dialogue in the Republic (Volumes I to V).
With regard to justice, Plato believed that it was clearer to see at the macro level than at the micro level, so he did not elaborate from the point of view of the individual man, but created a righteous state on the whole side.
Plato decided that citizens should be divided into three classes: ordinary people, warriors, and guardians. Only guardians have political power, and initially guardians should be elected by legislators, but after that they are usually hereditary. Only in exceptional circumstances will two children of lower rank have the opportunity to be promoted, while unsatisfactory youths or children among the guardians will be demoted. (I doubt very much the chances of this particular situation existing, because in many ways it cannot be objectively quantified as to whether it is excellent or not, and subjective characterization is often mixed with a lot of bias.) ）
In order for the guardians to fully carry out the intentions of the legislators, Plato believed that education should be considered first. Education is divided into music and sports. The scope was similar to today's "culture" and "sports" that were broader than "sports".
Culture is dedicated to raising people into gentlemen. Dignity, decorum and bravery seem to be the main qualities to be cultivated in education. In order to achieve this, the content of education received from the beginning of the child is subject to strict scrutiny. So much so that the works of Homer and others are regarded as untouchable because they either show god's misdeeds, or contain content that is greedy for life and fear death, or have a laugh different from solemn etiquette, and describe the desires of the gods.
Drama is forbidden for very absurd reasons, because the characters in the play have bad people, and good people can't imitate bad people because they need to play, which will lead to good people becoming bad. Music must be able to express bravery and moderation in order to be accepted, and other expressions such as sadness or cheerfulness are not allowed.
The exercise of the flesh is very harsh. Young people are not allowed to see any ugliness and crime in the early days, but at certain and appropriate moments, they must be shown all kinds of "charms" so that they will not be afraid or decadent. (I doubt that such a huge contrast can be tolerated by many people who have just entered adolescence)
With regard to the economy, Plato believed that both wealth and poverty were harmful and unproductive, so neither of them existed in the Republic. There is no private property other than what is necessary. The lives of the guards and warriors were simple and only met their daily needs.
With regard to marriage, the system adopted was entirely aimed at optimizing fertility. On certain holidays, men and women are combined by lottery, which convinces young people through continuous education that their union is the result of a lottery, when in fact this drawing of lots is carried out through cheating, for the purpose of so-called eugenics. Even so, babies born are not guaranteed to be robust, and weak babies will be abandoned outright. In arranged "marriages," the people involved have no choice, and they are driven by the idea of responsibility rather than by so-called ordinary feelings. The adoption of this system leads to all women being the common wives of all men without exception, and no man will have a fixed wife of his own. Babies are also taken away as soon as they are born, leaving all children unaware of who their parents are.
Plato's pursuit in doing so, of course, was to minimize feelings of selfishness and exclusivity, thereby removing the obstacles that hindered the dominance of the public spirit and opposed the abolition of private property.
On the theological question of the Republic, Plato said openly that the government has certain privileges, just as prescribing medicines is the prerogative of doctors. Utopia claims that God created three kinds of people: the best are made of gold, the inferior are made of silver, and the common man is made of copper and iron. For better or worse, they act as guardians, warriors, and the most severe, manual labor. What Plato did not realize was that the forced acceptance of this myth was incompatible with the spirit of philosophy and necessarily contained a way of education that hindered the development of the intellect.
Plato's definition of justice has several points to note.
First, it makes it possible for power and privilege to be unequal but just for people. So the guardians have full power, because they are the wisest in society;
Second, Plato's definition of "justice" presupposes a state. With regard to justice, Plato favored not the individual to be able to enjoy the work he was interested in, but for the state to decide what the individual should do.
Although today it seems difficult to achieve the Ideal State from the eyes of our modern people, from the history of ancient Greece, many strange regulations have actually been realized in Sparta. For the Republic, we are more today reflecting on the mistakes we have made in the past through the understanding of its ideas, as well as reviewing the shortcomings we have today, and more importantly, thinking about how to build our future.