Plato's Five Regime In The Movie Ida

Plato goes into detail about what is known as the five regimes. The five regimes can apply to both individuals and societies. The regimes go from orderliness to chaos in this order: aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. On an individual level, a tyrant is someone who essentially grants themselves complete freedom to chase pleasure in abundance, no matter what measures they take to achieve it. This could be a pursuit of money, sex, power, or any other earthly possession that may fill the hole in a man’s heart. And though tyranny can function on a state level, “the nature of pleasure and the principle of tyranny are further analyzed in the individual man” (Plato, location 80). On the other hand, an aristocratic individual is a philosopher, someone with extensive knowledge and selflessness. They are in full control of their desires and they question everything. Aristocrats realize that money, power, and fame are just shadows of the Good, and in order to find true happiness, one must look internally, rather than externally. They know that those ungodly wants just cover up for what they are truly searching for. These individuals with these traits can translate into societies with the same traits, an aristocracy being a society run by a philosopher. An

aristocratic society puts one person in charge of the civilization, and he who is in charge is wiser than those he rules over. He controls their freedom and encourages the people to strive for something superior to material possessions. Tyranny functions as an “every man for himself” society without a hint of order. The five regimes bring up another question that is extremely relevant in society today, and that is the speculation about what Plato might think about democracy being the best form of government.
In the movie Ida, the protagonist Ida grows up in a Catholic convent without ever knowing her parents.

She lives every aspect of her life in the name of God and when the movie begins, she is taking the last steps to marry into the Church as a Catholic nun. Ida grew up not knowing anything about her parents, but in a surprising twist of fate, her only relative informs her that she is Jewish, or rather, her parents were. It is then that she decides to spend a few days with her one relative, her aunt Wanda, before the ceremony. So Ida emerges from her aristocratic lifestyle where she is under the constant supervision of the elder nuns, ascending up the church’s standings within the confines of the

convent.
Coming out on the other side, she observes an anarchical walk of life, her aunt Wanda. Wanda lives a tyrannical life, pursuing alcohol and sex whenever and wherever she can find it. As Plato would describe it, “tyranny…which differs from them all…[is] the fourth and worst disorder of a state” (Plato, 259). Wanda spends her days floating from cheap motel to cheap motel, spending nights is sleazy old nightclubs where she picks up men to seduce. Ida gets exposed to this life and spends the bulk of the movie abstaining from the provocative acts of her aunt. However, her aunt commits suicide after finding out the fate of her son, who was killed in the war when she left him to join the Resistance, and when this happens, Ida makes the decision to live a day and a night in Wanda’s shoes. She drinks, smokes, and sleeps with a handsome saxophone player. The last dialogue shared in the movie makes even the audience wonder whether the typical life of a human being has any power or meaning:
“Lis: Then we'll buy a dog...Get married, have children...Get a house.
Ida: And then?
Lis: The usual. Life.”
The simplicity of Lis’s answers shows the utter mundaneness of life. Plato would argue that it is nobler to live a life of “moderation” because “the simple and moderate desires which follow reason…are to be found only in a few, and those the best born and best educated” (Plato, 127)

Regardless of what Ida does, there are no worldly pleasures that can match with her love for the church and her drive to be a woman of God. Ida is the perfect example of freedom as something evil and mal intended. With the freedom of tyranny, humans are pushed to practice hedonism, which puts personal pleasure before everything else, friends, family, the environment, etc. After discovering what little meaning comes from a tyrannical life, she grabs her things and walks back to the convent. This movie is a perfect example of what happens when aristocracy meets tyranny and when control meets disarray. The tyrannical individual, according to Plato, lives a life 729 times more painful than an individual of any of the other regimes (Plato, 316). Though this is an obscure and hefty number, the character of Wanda confirms the legitimacy of this statement. Her pain is so deep that it drives her to take her own life. A main trait of a tyrant is their use of freedom. While aristocrats control their desires, knowing that they are Earthly, tyrants will act upon whatever they want, and Wanda does this. Her impulsivity is to the highest degree, and this is the life of a tyrant. She sleeps with new men every night, drinks to her heart’s desire, and when she wants everything to be over, she ends it; total freedom. She is comparable in some sense to Gaear Grimsrud from Fargo.
Grimsrud, a Swedish sociopath, speaks very few words 80 throughout the entire film, juxtaposed by his accomplice, Carl, played by Steve Buschemi, who speaks 238 in the fist scene alone (http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Gaear_Grimsrud) , even when spoken to. Given these statistics, it is hard for the audience to get a clear sense of what is happening in Grinmsrud’s mind. In order to attain a suitcase full of money, Grimsrud kills a police officer, a stranger, and his accomplice among others. Plato often talks about the relationship between money and justice because to be a just man, one cannot lust for wealth. “There can be no doubt that the love of wealth and the spirit of moderation cannot exist together in citizens of the same State to any considerable extent” (Plato, 273) Plato talks a lot about moderation. This is because when humans are given the ability to have as much as they want, they will attempt to acquire all of it. This very concept is the reason for the growing dislike of capitalism.
“Tyranny, which by fraud and force takes away the property of others, not little by little but wholesale…for which acts of wrong, if he were detected perpetrating any one of them singly, he would be punished” (Page 23)

“Cephalic…fond of the poetry of the last generation, happy in the consciousness of a well-spent life, glad at having escaped from the tyranny of youthful lusts. His love of conversation, his affection, his indifference to riches, even his garrulity, are interesting traits of character. He is not one of those who have nothing to say, because their whole mind has been absorbed in making money.” (Location 162)

While it is useful to compare literature to other literature, it is also important to bring to attention the relevancy of Plato’s five regimes within the current world, and more specifically, modern America. America is built on freedom and patriots take a lot of pride in that, but Plato sees this freedom calls out this freedom, saying, “does not tyranny spring from democracy?” (Plato, 282) Democracy is only one small step above tyranny. Plato does not agree with giving commoners as much freedom as they get in a democratic society because this can easily spiral into a tyrannical government. He believes that philosophers are the best candidates to run a state and those below philosophers should keep their wants and desires in check as well as pay the proper respect to their philosopher ruler. This brings into question whether a democratic state can be upheld. America has had many slip-ups.