Forbidden Planet

What else but destroying and overthrowing? Whom? The man of fidelity, the man of modesty, the man of sanctity. Is this all? And are we not overthrowing neighbourhood, and friendship, and the community; and in what place are we putting ourselves? How shall I consider you? As a neighbour, as a friend? What kind? As a citizen? How can I trust you? If you were a utensil, you would be so worthless that no man could use you, and you would be thrown out on the dung heaps, and no man would pick you up. But, being a man, you are unable to fulfill any role which befits a man, what are we to do with you? Since you cannot hold the place of a friend, can you hold the place of a slave? Who will trust you? Is it not reasonable that you too should be pitched somewhere on a dung heap, as a useless utensil, and a bit of dung? But then you complain, "Doesn't anyone care about me"? They do not, because you are bad and useless. It is as if wasps complained that no man cares for them; if a man...

Plato’s Republic, begins with a discourse between Socrates, Glaucon, Lysias, Euthydemus, Thrasymachus, Charmantides, Clitophon, and Cephalus. I think this discourse is the best part of the book. Here is my abridged retelling of the dialog (I am not going to research who said what – otherwise, I would just post the whole discourse here. Socrates is the principal actor here, the others are just there to keep the discourse going, so they have been lumped together as Friend): Socrates: “What is justice?” Friend: “It is doing good to ones friends and harm to ones enemies.” Socrates: “Sounds sensible. But what if your friend was really your enemy and your enemy was really your friend? Then you would have harmed your friend and done good to your enemy.” Friend: “Well, we should amend that to say, ‘Do good to true friends and harm to true enemies’”. Socrates: “Ah! That is much better. But how do we distinguish between true friend and true enemy?” Friend: “That is not easy.” Socrates: “So i...