Genesis

by Bernard Beckett

Plato told the people that the Downfall had come about because people had strayed from their natural state. They had embraced change uncritically, forgetting the most fundamental law of science, that change means decay. Plato told the people of The Republic that they could return to the glory of the great civilisations only by creating a society based upon stability and order. Plato identified what he called the five great threats to order: Impurity of Breeding, Impurity of Thought, Indulgence of the Individual, Commerce, and The Outsider. His solutions were radical, but the people were frightened and clung to his many promises. ‘The state has saved you,’ Plato told them, ‘and now you must toil to save the state.’ The people were divided into four distinct classes, based upon genomic readings. Labourers, Soldiers, Technicians and Philosophers. Children were separated from their parents at birth, and details of their parentage were never divulged. At the end of their first year each child was tested, and either allocated to their class or terminated.