Plato's ideas behind the concepts of beauty, art, and its reference to the State are interesting, but I think some of his thoughts would not integrate into modern society. His idea of the State is a place where the citizens would work together in a class system, where truth, virtue, and all other characteristics deemed part of a universal that applies to the concept of good would be promoted. Within this system, the only person who would be permitted to use values outside of the defined good, like lying for example, would be the Statesman (pg. 17). Naturally, this leads to a censorship of any alternative ideas that the State believes would corrupt the universal good.

In reference to the arts, this becomes quite a significant point. According to Plato, both the liberal and sordid arts would have to conform to laws so that unjust concepts would not influence the public. In the example of poetry, Plato says that most of the existing poems that tell of the gods would have to be removed from his State as they promote negative ideas like deceit and violence (pg.10). He wants the citizens of the State to see God as a good being that is incapable of horrible acts. This philosophy of State control has appeared in history, most notably in Nazi Germany, where artists that did not create good art in the definition of the State, were labeled as retarded. Their work was then exhibited to demonstrate what was not accepted by the State.

I believe today's society has a tendency to represent more of what Plato feared about introducing ideas outside of the universal good. Although our society is still, in a relative sense, ruled by universals through the doctrine outlined by government, there are several dangerous ideas practiced by the citizens. In one sense, our societal structure has been its own undoing as increasing violence and chaos and disrupts the harmony that Plato feels is important. Yet in another sense, I think that there is some sort of an order to our society. In experiencing both the good and the bad in all degrees there remains a sense of balance that Plato discusses as a key in society. Unlike the society of Plato where everything is simply balanced, the balance today is difficult to find. Truth also plays a large part in Plato's society. The true image is one that has been created by God and anything that has been created like the true image is an imitation. The farther from the ideal, the less truth is involved. He feels that artists make imitations of imitations with no way to measure their work against any mean (pg.37). This situates the sordid arts in a lower place in the class system, but these artists can increase their status if they use some aspect of measure, like proportion in their work. By doing this, the artist is closer to reaching the ideal. Plato also makes allowances for those who are able to create a true imitation without knowledge of the true image by attributing that situation to divine influence.

From this philosophy, the true beauty of an image is only found with harmony, truth, and knowledge. Plato also concludes that only the good can have true beauty, as anything bad would be devoid of the characteristics of beauty. Taking into account that the Greek view of art and today's view of art differs, I think that art is essentially an imitation of truth. Beauty must be ruled by some kind of genetic definition within humanity as all people find symmetry beautiful. But there is also an undeniable beauty within images of the grotesque that attract people subliminally. For instance, people are attracted to horror movies that contain violence. If these movies had absolutely no sense of beauty, people would be totally repulsed by the imagery and refuse to watch them. It seems to me that Plato would dismiss such images automatically as they have a tendency to deal with concepts that he would censor from his State.

Plato's philosophies have had a great impact on society as they do embody concepts that humanity tends to strive for, but I think that he has dismissed a totally different side of the beauty with reference to the State by condoning harmony and reason in an Apollonian existence. For anything Dionysian to have beauty, as the attraction of the grotesque seems to indicate, there must be some good qualities within something that is bad. It may also be a step in proving that the idea of a universal truth that applies to everyone is a false assumption.