4 ms·

I've heard the author give a really interesting interview on radio 4 about his book - I've not read it though but i find it equally frustrating and fascinating

I've heard the author give a really interesting interview on radio 4 about his book - I've not read it though but i find it equally frustrating and fascinating as a person with a northern accent from an extremely working class background. watching, listening and interacting with various people from many backgrounds. i don't hate or dislike people who have been to public schools - in fact after many drunken nights out talking people who have been in them, i often pity them (based on my experience) the class system is not only alive in the UK, it's still massively thriving. Including a massive amount of stereotyping - not sure if this is higher or lower in the uk, but it seems to rule some peoples lives here (often people who percieve themselves as superior) <I've deleted much ranting here - yes I've been drinking> but tl;dr I think unless the uk (or any country for that matter) wants to progress as a nation - public schools should be outlawed. they're made/ designed (with the class system) to allow rich people to give their offspring highly paid influential jobs no matter what their ability is - at the expense of the nation as a whole. edit: I expect to get downvoted by varous people for saying this - please give a reply instead of just down voting

reducesuffering 5y ago
Reminds me of Plato’s noble lie: “While all of you, in the city, are brothers, we will say in our tale, yet god, in fashioning those of you who are fitted to hold rule, mingled gold in their generation, for which reason they are the most precious—but in the helpers, silver, and iron and brass in the farmers and other craftsmen. And, as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds, it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son, and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire, and that the rest would, in like manner, be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else are they to be such careful guardians, and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out among the artisans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his composition they shall honor such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that there is an oracle that the city shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian.” ‘Socrates proposes and claims that if the people believed "this myth...[it] would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another.’ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie

reducesuffering 5y ago

Reminds me of Plato’s noble lie: “While all of you, in the city, are brothers, we will say in our tale, yet god, in fashioning those of you who are fitted to hold rule, mingled gold in their generation, for which reason they are the most precious—but in the helpers, silver, and iron and brass in the farmers and other craftsmen. And, as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds, it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son, and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire, and that the rest would, in like manner, be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else are they to be such careful guardians, and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out among the artisans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his composition they shall honor such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that there is an oracle that the city shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian.” ‘Socrates proposes and claims that if the people believed "this myth...[it] would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another.’ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie