The Guardian Class of Plato's Republic

Socrates says that if the city is to afford luxuries, it will need to develop a powerful military for taking and protecting more land than it strictly needs. He sets up a division of the city into two types of people, the guardian soldiers and the laborers. This aspect of the republic has come in for its share of criticism. Famously, the philosopher karl pauper accused plato of being an enemy of what he called the open society and saw the republic as a founding text of totalitarianism. Now, i don't want to be an apologist for plato. Actually, i take that back. I do Want to Be An Apologist For The Republic by John