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     This idea came to me as I was flipping through the tv guide looking for something to watch. I ran across the last 15 minutes of an old sci phi movie, "Logan's Run".  For those of you not familiar with the movie, its about society that survived a catastrophic war.  They enclosed the city in domes and nobody could even see the outside world.  It was the perfect society.   Everyone had what they wanted or needed.  They were in perfect health. There was no need for money.  Children were not born to there parents, they were born and raised in a lab.  They had no last names, just a first name with a number. They led a hedonistic life. Everyone was happy, well not everyone as we will discuss.
     One thing that led to people trying to escape this society was that they had to be "reborn" at the   age of 30.  Some of the citizens believed they were actually being killed, not reborn.  Some of the citizens believed they were being lied to about the outside world, that it was not a waste land.  There were rumors that some had escaped and there was a sanctuary  city where people grew old and enjoyed being outside. In my next post we will look at the outside.
     Think about this society in regards to the ideal city in Plato's Republic.  Everything is perfect, life is a party.  Happiness abounds.  Socrates would question the happiness of the people inside compared to the people on the outside.  Are they truly happier inside the dome or are they being brainwashed.  Are the people outside of the dome, the people that don't have all the luxuries of the city, truly unhappy or are they better off.  Interesting questions to ponder.  Plato believes that a society must be structured, like under the dome, and to loose that structure you would have no society.  Is this true?  Plato’s ideal city is highly regulated. Individuals are divided into groups based on social status: an auxiliary class, comprised of warriors who defend the city and enforce the laws, and a the lower class, both ruled by a class of guardians, headed by the philosopher-king.  Children in Plato's ideal city were also born in a nursery and raised by nurses, not the parents.  I cant help but believe the writers of the movie based this city on Plato's.
     Looking at this "Utopia" I wonder if it really is a Utopia or a "Dystopia". The citizens have no freedom, they are told what to do.  They just accept what they are told and those they contest it or seem to threaten there society, are outcast or killed. People cannot choose their own way of life.
     At the start of the movie I thought it was great. everyone seemed happy, life was perfect and this is something I think we all work toward.  But as the movie progresses, I started to see the negative sides to this life compared to life today, where we have unhappiness and struggle to survive at times.  I truly believe that its the struggles we experience, the unhappiness, and raising our own young are what keeps us alive, gives us hope and faith in mankind. Its how we learn and keeps our minds alive.
     In my second posting, probably tomorrow, I am going to look at the escape from the city, where a couple of citizens make it outside and experience things they never knew existed and how it changed them.
     ps  since this is not a movie review I apologize for not giving more information about it.  In the 70's it  was a great movie but today it would be consider hokey.  Still a good movie to Netflix if your bored.  Even has Farrah Fawcet in it.  You probably dont know her but almost every boy had her poster in there bedroom or dorm room in the 70's and 80's.  Old man out till tomorrow.

Every boys dream girl.  Farrah Fawcet.

Carousal the process of being reborn

Imagine this city enclosed under