For those of you that don't know much about Plato, he wrote a set of ten books in ancient Greece, concerning the way a state should be led, and most importantly, the community within: "The Republic of Plato".
In his republic, all men and women should be born and raised without ever knowing their parents. In this way, each generation would look up as one to their previous generations as their parents, in this case, their tutors and guides in life. The community values would be upholded and the community itself prevailed.
And why would Plato smile? I recall in my visit in Swaziland to the typical tribal village: the children would be instructed by the elders of their gender. The men would all live together in the same area of the village and the women in another area. Both genders would then learn within themselves of the ways of life. The men would be instructed in the ways of hunting and war, and the women in the ways of agriculture, marriage, and general tasks within the village. This way, the community would be maintained.
Well, so far so good. Plato would definitely smile IF the African village would uphold the development of knowledge as a leverage for survival.
Now why would I write this? Simple. Look at the world today: the northern hemisphere as an historic view of the search of knowledge as leverage; the southern hemisphere disregarded knowledge as leverage, basically because resources were (and still are) scarce. Either way, the community would prevail, albeit with different values.
To me, the values today are very much still present. The way developed countries search for truth in defense and survival of their own communities is appalling when we think that today we're supposed to live with peace throughout the globe. Truth is not widespread as much as we want it to be. Simply, it is not enforced. Our rights exist, but mostly in paper.
JC
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