Plato would find the music video "I'm Afraid of Americans", by David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, to be dangerous to his Republic, and he would ban it immediately. The first problem he would have would be the artistic medium being used. With video the object is three times removed from it's original form. The art is inherently imitative because the musicians are essentially actors in the video. Plato felt that "that imitation is a form of play and not serious . . . all those who compose tragic poetry, whether in iambic or epic verse, are imitators in the highest degree possible . . . this imitating is concerned with something at third removed from the truth" (Plato, 49). The forms, in this case Americans and David Bowie, exist but we see only a reflection which is then captured on film to create an image three times removed from what Plato considers to be truth. Once it is being viewed over the Internet and onto a monitor it has finally become four times removed. Thus all truth and virtue that could have existed in Americans and Bowie would be completely obscured by the time it reached the Internet and our computer. Although he would surely marvel at the technological accomplishment of being able to capture actual events as they occur on film, he would find the use of that technology to only be appropriate for filming historical events, and only the people of the most highest virtue would be allowed to be captured on film.
In additio, Plato would also have concerns about the art form of music videos because the images and lyrics of the song create a narrative/myth about society that could be used to create social upheaval. Plato asks in the Republic, "shall we than carelessly allow the children to listen to any myths made up by anyone, and to absorb into their souls opinions which are for the most part opposite of those we think they should have when they grow up?" (Plato, 16). From the onset of the video Bowie is running from Renzor's character "Johnny" because he is "afraid of Americans". This would be seen by Plato as promoting fear and hysteria. In Plato's Republic there would be no reason to fear enemies of the state because one should have trust in the Republics superiority. In addition there are images in the video that include the insinuation of a woman giving oral sex to a man in public, a man shooting a police officer in the head, and regular citizens shooting each other at whim, which Plato would conclude to be dangerous for citizens to watch. Just like his disdain for tragedy, Plato would say that these images, coupled with the disturbing quality of the music, could evoke passion within common people that could not be controlled, and thus make it difficult for them to separate reason and virtue from immoral desires.
Finally, at one point Bowie sings that "God is an American", and for Plato this would be the ultimate outrage. It would be the equivalent of saying that Zeus is a Spartan, or a Persian, and comparing Zeus to an average human is the same as equating humans with the Gods. Plato believed that the muse inspired artists to create and that reason was not needed to create poetry. If one was divinely inspired to blaspheme it would come as a shock to Plato and his contemporaries because when one challenged the Gods they were always vanquished. To Plato all men have is reason and virtue, and Bowie's music video "I'm Afraid of Americans" implies that virtue and reason are utterly abandoned when societies like America begin to police the world with fear tactics. The same tactics that Plato himself would like to employ against artists like Bowie.
Works Cited
I'm Afraid of Americans. Dir. Dom and Nick. Perf. David Bowie and Trent Reznor. 1998. Film.
Plato. “Republic 10." Classical Literary Criticism. Ed. Penelope Murray, T.S. Dorsch. London: Penguin Classics, 2004. Print.
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